Amidst one of the biggest scandals in his company's history, Volkswagen's CEO says he won't resign, but promises swift action to address it.
In a video statement published Tuesday, Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn said he will not resign and he asks for the support of the public during the recall.
It was recently revealed that Volkswagen cheated on emissions testing with its four-cylinder diesel cars using a complex software algorithm called a "defeat device." The software would detect when the car was undergoing emissions testing and turn on all of the emissions control systems, allowing it to pass the E.P.A.'s tests. In normal driving, the systems would turn off, giving the car greater fuel efficiency and performance while increasing Nitrogen Oxide pollution up to 40 times.
In the U.S., this is a violation of the Clean Air Act, and as such, Volkswagen could face hefty fines and criminal charges.
The software's existence was first confirmed in 482,000 U.S. market cars, but Volkswagen announced Tuesday that it was used in 11 million cars sold around the world, including models from Volkswagen, Audi, Skoda and Seat.
Winterkorn was extremely apologetic in his statement, according to Die Welt.
“We’re clarifying, I give you my word in all of this, we will proceed with all the necessary transparency and openness. We will do everything to regain your confidence, step by step,” he said.
Bloomberg highlights Winterkorn's call to action: “At this point, I don’t have the answers to all the questions, but we’re in the process of ruthlessly investigating the issue, and to that end everything will be put on the table as fast, thoroughly and transparently as possible.”
Winterkorn's comments echo a statement made by Volkswagen Group of America's President and CEO Michael Horn at a launch event for the 2016 Passat in Brooklyn, NY Monday night.
Road & Track transcribed Horn's full comments:
"So let's be clear about this: our company was dishonest with the EPA and the California Air Resources Board, and with all of you," Horn said. "[I]n my German words, we've totally screwed up. We must fix those cars, and prevent this from ever happening again, and we have to make things right—with the government, the public, our customers, our employees, and also very importantly our dealers."
"You can be sure that we will continue not only to correct this TDI issue, and to straighten things out, and to pay what we have to pay, and we will continue to work very hard to make our story in the US for the customers and dealers and employees successful," he said after unveiling the face-lifted Passat.
Volkswagen said it will set aside $7.3 billion dollars to resolve the issue, but it's unclear whether it will repair the cars using a simple software patch or by developing new hardware. The former would be cheap, but at the detriment of performance. The latter would be expensive and complex.
Reuters reports that Winterkorn was scheduled to have his contract renewed at a supervisory board meeting Friday, but now his future seems somewhat uncertain.
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