Winfried Vahland was at Volkswagen for more than 25 years, most recently as the head of Czech division Skoda.

Reuters
Hamburg/Berlin

The man Volkswagen lined up less than three weeks ago to head its North American business resigned yesterday, dealing a blow to the German carmaker’s efforts to recover from a scandal over its rigging of US diesel emissions tests.
News of the resignation of company veteran Winfried Vahland came as Germany’s Spiegel magazine reported that at least 30 Volkswagen managers were involved in the test cheating, citing internal and external investigations. VW said the figure was without any basis.
Last week, the head of Volkswagen’s US business, Michael Horn, said he thought only “a couple of software engineers” were responsible.
“Vahland was a good manager,” said London-based analyst Arndt Ellinghorst at banking advisory firm Evercore ISI. “VW is facing massive challenges and a completely new start.”
Europe’s largest carmaker is in crisis after admitting last month it installed software in diesel vehicles to deceive US regulators about their true level of toxic emissions.
The scandal has wiped about a quarter off VW’s market value, forced out its long-time chief executive and rocked both the global car industry and the German economy.
Vahland was at Volkswagen for more than 25 years, most recently as the head of Czech division Skoda.
Skoda said in a statement he was leaving of his own choice due to unspecified differences of opinion over the company’s organisation of its North American business, confirming what sources close to the matter earlier told Reuters.
“This decision is expressly not connected to the current events around the diesel topic,” the statement said.
German weekly Auto Bild earlier reported Vahland’s departure, noting he was passed over for the top job at Volkswagen after CEO Martin Winterkorn resigned because of the scandal on September 23.
Volkswagen had appointed 58-year-old Vahland to join the management of its core VW brand on November 1 as head of its operations in the US, Mexico and Canada as part of a broader reshuffle that led to Porsche CEO Matthias Mueller taking the helm of the group.
Sources had told Reuters before Vahland’s appointment that the Skoda CEO was also the favourite to get a new management board position to oversee the group’s North American operations, which were struggling even before the test rigging scandal.
Volkswagen is under pressure to identify those responsible for the wrongdoing and fix up to 11mn affected vehicles. It has been criticised by lawmakers, investors and consumers for the time it is taking to produce answers.
Spiegel, citing preliminary results of investigations by law firm Jones Day and Volkswagen itself, said the dozens of managers implicated in test rigging would be suspended.
It also cited a person familiar with the matter as saying the circle of those involved or who knew about the cheating could widen further.
New CEO Mueller is expected to speak to top management today about the current state of the investigations, steps drawn up by VW to refit as many as 11mn affected diesel models and possible spending cuts.
On Tuesday, the company announced plans to step up development of electric and hybrid vehicles.
German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel warned yesterday against condemning diesel technology as a whole due to the scandal at Volkswagen, but said Germany needed to do better in switching to alternative engines.
The car industry employs more than 750,000 people in Germany and is a major source of export income. Diesel vehicles are particularly important in Europe, accounting for about a half of sales compared with just a small fraction in the US.
Gabriel said he was in favour of incentives to reduce the price difference between electric and conventional vehicles. However, the German finance ministry said it saw such as incentives as problematic.