2008 Volkswagen Gti Base Hatchback 2-door 2.0l on 2040-cars

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Volkswagen reportedly to name Matthias Muller CEO

Porsche chief executive officer Matthias Muller is expected to be named CEO of Volkswagen AG, the Wall Street Journal and other sources reported Thursday morning. Muller, 62, has led Porsche since Oct. 1, 2010, and jumpstarted the sports-car brand's expansion around the world. He replaces Martin Winkerkorn, who stepped down Wednesday amid the company's worsening diesel scandal. At least three more executives are also expected to be fired, including Volkswagen's US chief and the heads of Audi and Porsche research and development. Both brands are divisions of VW. A US spokesman wouldn't confirm the reports. An official announcement is expected at VW's board meeting on Friday. Muller's ascension caps a stunning week of turmoil for Volkswagen, which manipulated software to make its diesel-powered vehicles appear cleaner during testing that they are in real-world driving. The charges were revealed last week by the EPA, which cited the work of researchers at West Virginia University. About 482,000 vehicles are affected in the United States, which will be subject to recall, and VW estimates about 11 million of its vehicles around the world have the rigged software. The well-regarded Muller was viewed as a front-runner for the job even before Winterkorn stepped down. Before helming Porsche, he oversaw all vehicle projects globally for VW from 2007-2010. Previously, he was in charge of the Audi and Lamborghini product lines, and earlier in his career was responsible for the Audi A3 program in the 1990s. He joined Audi in 1977. He's trained as a toolmaker and studied information technology in Munich. His last name is sometimes spelled Mueller in English. Muller faces immediate challenges as he takes over VW's sprawling 78-year-old industrial empire, including recalls and regulatory actions around the world. In the US alone, the company faces a fine of up to $18 billion. VW, an industrial symbol of Germany, is also far larger than any unit Muller has run in his career. While Porsche sold 189,849 vehicles in 2014 globally, it's one of many VW brands. Collectively they sold 5.04 million vehicles through the first six months of this year, making Volkswagen the world's largest automaker. Related Video:

Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee teases return with a Countach

Unless you have an intense aversion to Jerry Seinfeld, it's hard not to find something to like about his show Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. After all, the series combines funny people telling often hilarious stories while riding in ridiculously cool vehicles. The trailer for the sixth season is now online, and based on this tease, this definitely looks worth watching no matter what part of the videos interest you. Of course, it's the automotive portion that really grabs us, and Seinfeld has quite a fleet to showcase for season six. The trailer shows off a Lamborghini Countach, a '57 Chevrolet Bel Air convertible, a classic Volkswagen Beetle in the green and white German Polizei livery, a Morgan, an Aston Martin DB5, and a Ferrari 308. On the more humorous side of things, the guest list at least includes Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jim Carrey, Steve Harvey, Stephen Colbert, Bill Maher and upcoming host of The Daily Show Trevor Noah. Season six of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee premieres on Crackle on Wednesday, June 3, at 11:30 PM ET.

VW decides against active-cooling system for e-Golf lithium battery

When the 2015 VW e-Golf was introduced at the LA Auto Show last year, VW said it would come with a water-cooled battery. During the Detroit Auto Show, when the car was trotted out again, VW released a new press release that stripped out the "water-cooled" language, but this change went unnoticed. During a recent VW event in Germany, a friend from Green Car Reports realized that the battery on display did not seem to have any water-cooling mechanisms. That set us off on a bit of a sleuthing and we have now learned that VW is not going to include any active cooling in the upcoming e-Golf. In fact, the company is entirely confident that this car - because of what it's designed to do - doesn't need it. "The need for a cooling system wasn't there" - VW's Darryll Harrison VW has been working on an electrified Golf for ages now, and so changes to the plan are to be expected. But battery cooling is vitally important not just to keep the car operating properly but because when things get too hot, there can be serious public relations problems. Nissan began testing a new battery chemistry for the Leaf in 2013 after an uproar from warm-weather EV drivers in Arizona who were experiencing worse-than-expected battery performance. The Leaf has always used an air-cooled battery, which is another way to say that there is no active cooling system (more details here). Tesla CEO Elon Musk once said this approach is "primitive." So, why is VW following the same path? We asked Darryll Harrison, VW US's manager of brand public relations west, for more information, and he told AutoblogGreen that VW engineers discovered through a lot of testing of the Golf Mk6 EV prototypes, that battery performance was not impacted by temperatures when using the right battery chemistry. That chemistry, it turns out, is lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide (NMC) in cells from Panasonic. These cells had "the lowest self-warming tendency and the lowest memory effect of all cells tested," Harrison said. He added that VW engineers tested the NMC cells in places like Death Valley and Arizona and found they didn't warm very quickly either through operation, charging (including during fast charging) or through high ambient temps. "The need for a cooling system wasn't there," Harrison said.