Sept. 25--Working to recover from a widespread cheating scheme to evade emissions regulations, Volkswagen named the top manager of its Porsche subsidiary to head the German automaker.
Volkswagen said Friday that Matthias Mueller, 62, will replace Martin Winterkorn, 68, who resigned earlier this week as the scandal quickly grew to affect 11 million vehicles worldwide.
"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," Mueller said.
Under his watch, Volkswagen will "develop and implement the most stringent compliance and governance standards in our industry."
Mueller won the immediate endorsement of labor leaders.
"We know and value Matthias Mueller for his determination and decisiveness. He does not work on his own, rather he is a team player. That is what Volkswagen needs now," said Bernd Osterloh, chairman of the Group Works Council, VW's union.
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The automaker also appointed Winfried Vahland, chief of its Skoda division, to head the automaker's North American operations. However, Michael Horn will remain chief executive of Volkswagen Group of America.
Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency and California Air Resources Board said they had caught Volkswagen using sophisticated software to cheat on pollution tests on 482,000 diesel vehicles sold in the U.S.
After tips from researchers in Europe and the University of West Virginia, California and federal regulators discovered that VW had buried an algorithm in 100 million lines of computer code in its vehicle electronics to allow the cars to emit up to 40 times the legally allowed amount of nitrogen oxide.
The cars met environmental regulations when tested on a dynamometer -- a kind of treadmill for vehicles -- in a laboratory. But they spewed pollution when driven on roads.
Volkswagen faces criminal and civil investigations in the U.S. and potential EPA fines that could reach $18 billion. VW already has taken a $7-billion charge to set aside money to cover the cost of the scandal.
Mueller started as a toolmaker at Audi and then studied at the Munich University of Applied Sciences, obtaining his master's degree in computer science. He has held a variety of positions at Volkswagen and has headed Porsche since 2010.
"He's respected and well-liked here," said a Porsche employee who was not authorized to speak on behalf of the company. "He gives his executives a lot of autonomy and seems to trust his people a lot," he said.
Mueller has been seen as the heir apparent to the top job and would have succeeded Winterkorn when the former CEO retired.
jerry.hirsch@latimes.com
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