The Volkswagen Group officially has a new CEO – Matthias Müller who is currently the chairman of Porsche AG. Muller will continue to serve as Porsche chairman until a successor can be found.
This follows the resignation of Martin Winterkorn earlier this week over the current ‘dieselgate’ scandal where it was uncovered that certain Volkswagen diesel cars were found to have so-called “defeat devices” that help them cheat stringent US air pollution tests.
62-year old Muller started off as an apprentice toolmaker with Audi. He then had a few stints at SEAT, Lamborghini, Volkswagen and Porsche. He has a master’s degree in computer science from Munich University of Applied Sciences.
“My most urgent task is to win back trust for the Volkswagen Group – by leaving no stone unturned and with maximum transparency, as well as drawing the right conclusions from the current situation. Under my leadership, Volkswagen will do everything it can to develop and implement the most stringent compliance and governance standards in our industry. If we manage to achieve that then the Volkswagen Group with its innovative strength, its strong brands and above all its competent and highly motivated team has the opportunity to emerge from this crisis stronger than before,” said Müller in the press release issued by the group on his appointment.
Volkswagen also revealed that internal evaluation shows that the current ‘dieselgate’ scandal affects approximately five million Volkswagen passenger car brand vehicles worldwide. This includes the Mk6 Golf, the Mk7 Passat and the Mk1 Tiguan equipped with EA189 diesel engines. Volkswagen says current EU6-compliant cars such as the Mk7 Golf, Mk7 Passat are not affected. The Volkswagen Touareg TDI which is the sole diesel Volkswagen car offered in Malaysia should not be affected either.
Dr. Herbert Diess, CEO of the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand stressed: “We are working at full speed on a technical solution that we will present to partners, to our customers and to the public as swiftly as possible. Our aim is to inform our customers as quickly as possible, so that their vehicles comply fully with regulations. I assure you that Volkswagen will do everything humanly possible to win back the trust of our customers, the dealerships and the public.”
The group is facing possible fines of up to US$18 billion (RM79 billion) as well a criminal investigation by the US Justice Department, and has already seen its share prices plunge 23% on Monday, wiping out at least €15.6 billion (RM74.8 billion) of its market value.
Want to know more about how VW allegedly managed to keep this quiet for so long, and how it finally got caught in the act? Read our in-depth story here.
Looking to sell your car? Sell it with Carro.
First order of business…..
A mid engined 488gtb rival~!
no, we already have R8/Huracan. but I’d like to see the spiritual successor of the W12 Nardo concept (but I’d rather buy Aventador duh)
or maybe a modern-day Toyota MR2 build on shortened R8 chassis
I can smoke those snail cars you mentioned.
yes, you can smoke the hotwheels/matchbox die-cast models not the real car
Even is not affecting Malaysia. I’m wishing to see which daring guy that gave instruction to putting in the “smart” programming
I hope this Porsche boss can do something about the lemons sold in Malaysia. I am a 2015 Passat owner and until today, 6 months of owning my Passat, I have had 2 DSG failures. Each time, VGM held my car for 3 weeks to replace the DSG.
Dear Porsche boss, please compensate all the Malaysian buyers as DSG lemons cannot be sold in Malaysia
No change in VGM management? Malaysians also suffered and still suffering with problem DSG.
Problem DSG is the same at cheating in diesel emissions. A lie is a lie. A cheat is a cheat. In Malaysia, VGM has sold its customers faulty cars that do not adhere to the high standards expected of a German car.
Soon the lies will come out. They say for every lie caught, 9 lies are still hidden and will come out eventually.
2015 Passat Owner.. what happen to you Passat? which service center you sent to? how come was not fixed? what did the service guys say?! was surprised that you have such complaint. But my Passat is 2 months older than you, it seem my Passat so far so good, I have not much complaint about it. Maybe people told me to beware on DSG problem, which have not solve. but so far so good my Passat is still doing fine..
Hope VW will work at full speed to get a technical solution for this issued. I believe they will.
Remember of DSG issued that happened here recently. Was pretty impressed VGM malaysia had made a huge improvement especially on their service center and solved the problematic car for all their customer.
VGM VGM where Are You? are you VW owner? or you only here to talk for fun! I myself own a Jetta and few of my friend who drive VW car mainly are happy with their vehicle
You can smoke yourself in a power window problem Proton
Dragging in P1 each time is unnecessary.
First order of business…
Coming up with more marketing gimmicks to trick the public….
Ya, like the ‘Plus’ car
How about TRD Sportivo without any performance added?
Fire the previous scapegoat. Bring in the new scapegoat. Lets see how long he stays before the next crisis.
Hello! Mr Mueller has been wt VW group for four decades. Most of his career was spent at Audi, but he served in various post within the group…he was then promoted as CEO of Porsche in 2010. A true and true VW guy.
So that should be more convincing to just fire him only instead of additional 3 more head honchos when another thing go tits-up. That would save VW’s management team culling. Great idea there.
Well what do proton trolls know about the car industry?
More than you, apparently so.
So you admit you are a troll?
Who cares, anyone can be “john”
At least he’s not muka tebal like Proton CEO
Business ethics nowdays. Cheating to gain profit. Shame on you!
so that I can buy the new passat without worry of DSG failure
Fix yourself or buy Proton
Malaysia not effected?? need to do the same experiment to prove it.
you should ask yourself first, how many diesel vw’s are in malaysia in the first place? and even then.. even a higher polluting VW diesel would very likely pass our current emissions standards that we have in place.
up to date, only VW Touareg is diesel car that selling in Malaysia. Mentioned accordingly this model should not be affected at all. So what sort of experiment you looking at?
If the big banks, major car manufacturers and other trusted big brands can f**k the public like this – who can we trust? Still can’t get my head around this latest scandal by a big name auto company. Whatever happened to company ‘values’, quality-control and other things that ostensibly, over decades, brought these companies such high reputation and gained so much public trust? Don’t get me started on FIFA.”Our Game is Fair Play”? Yeah if fair play is the public’s backsi**.