Could Expanded Diesel Scandal Threaten Mueller’s CEO Job at VW?

U.S. charges that Volkswagen AG’s diesel engine test rigging extends to larger engines could jeopardize Matthias Mueller’s future as the company’s CEO, analysts tell Bloomberg News. The reason: Mueller formerly headed VW’s Porsche brand, which the U.S. says used the tainted engines.

Mueller took over as CEO of the VW Group only six weeks ago. He replaced Martin Winterkorn, who resigned over the initial small-diesel cheating scandal in September.

Mueller’s appointment has been heralded as a break from the engineering team suspected of rigging 11 million of VW’s 2.0-liter 4-cylinder diesels to cheat on emission tests. But analysts opine that similar claims about 3.0-liter V-6 diesels used in Porsche vehicles suggests Mueller either knew about the illegal engines or failed to manage Porsche well enough to discover the issue.

VW says claims by the Environmental Protection Agency about the company’s V-6 diesels are unfounded. The company insists that software used to control the engines’ emission control system does not function in a “forbidden” manner.

EPA says the software turns on a process that enables the larger engine to meet U.S. nitrogen oxide emission limits during certification testing but switches off the system “one second” after the test ends. Thereafter, NOx emissions are as much as nine times the allowable maximum, according to the agency.