VW Says Diesel Emission Probe Will Take Months

Volkswagen AG says its internal investigation will take months to determine how and why the company deliberately equipped 11 million of its diesel engines with secret software designed to cheat government emission tests.

VW's supervisory board announced its five-member investigation team will be chaired by Berthold Huber, currently acting chair of the supervisory board. Others, all of them members of the supervisory board, are Babette Froehlich, Olaf Lies, Oliver Porsche and Bernd Osterloh.

The investigative committee will work closely with Jones Day, a U.S.-based global law firm, to coordinate the probe. Says panel member Lies, who is economy minister for Lower Saxony, "In the end, a series of people will be held accountable," especially "those responsible at the senior level."

The board's executive committee met for seven hours Wednesday evening to discuss the crisis with new CEO Matthias Mueller. The investigative committee will work closely with Jones Day, a U.S.-based global law firm, to conduct the investigation.

Meanwhile, critics complain that the company's decision to move ahead with pre-crisis plans to appoint as its permanent chairman Hans Dieter Poetsch its chief financial officer and a close associate of discredited former CEO Martin Winterkorn fails to rebuild trust in VW.