Porsche’s Product Development Chief Quits

Volkswagen Group’s Porsche unit says Wolfgang Hatz, who has headed its product development activities since 2011, has left the company. His replacement is Michael Steiner, formerly head of Porsche quality management.

Hatz is widely considered to be one of Germany’s best engineers. Before joining Porsche, he ran VW powertrain operations during the period in which the unit rigged some 11 million diesels to evade government emission limits. Porsche says a continuing investigation into the scandal has found no evidence to date of wrongdoing by Hatz.

But Porsche says he opted to quit after the company chose to delay releasing the full findings of the investigation from late April to sometime this autumn.