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VW's Winterkorn to stick around through at least 2018

Volkswagen may yet to have found a new chairman, but it's not about to get rid of its chief executive any time soon. The German automaker has announced its intention to renew Martin Winterkorn's contract through the end of 2018. That is, assuming that the Supervisory Board heeds the recommendation of its own Executive Committee when the full 20-member board meets on September 25. 68-year-old Winterkorn joined the Volkswagen Group back in 1993 after a decade and a half at Bosch. He was named head of Audi in 2002, and chairman of the Board of Management (effectively the chief executive officer) of the entire Volkswagen Group in 2007. Just a few months ago he faced off against Ferdinand Piech – chairman of the company's supervisory board and grandson of Ferdinand Porsche – that resulted in Winterkorn's victory and Piech's resignation. The executive committee's endorsement, then, is effectively a vote of confidence in Winterkorn's leadership. It still leaves unresolved the question of who will ultimately take over as chairman to succeed Piech. Winterkorn was touted for a potential promotion, but if the supervisory board renews his contract – currently set to expire next year – he'll be staying right where he is and a new chairman will need to be found. The chair is currently filled on an interim basis by Berthold Huber, former head of the union that was instrumental in Piech's ousting. Wolfsburg, 02 September 2015 Resolution of the Executive Committee of the Volkswagen AG Supervisory Board The Executive Committee of the Supervisory Board of Volkswagen AG unanimously agreed a resolution for submission to the Supervisory Board at its meeting on September 25, 2015 under which a new contract as Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG for a term until December 31, 2018 should be concluded with Professor Dr. Martin Winterkorn. "Together with Professor Martin Winterkorn at the helm we will continue on our successful path of recent years and systematically implement the goals of Strategy 2018", Berthold Huber, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Volkswagen AG, said.

VW outsells GM in China for first time in 8 years

In case you didn't know, Volkswagen is hell-bent on becoming the largest automaker in the world. The German carmaker has inched closer to that goal, having outsold General Motors in China last quarter for the first time in eight years.
Volkswagen's sales in China, its largest marker, increased by 21 percent last quarter to 704,991 units. Those numbers almost tripled GM's third-quarter growth, and were enough to beat out the American automaker's 664,765 sales. GM, however, still leads in year-to-date sales in China by a slim margin of around 77,000 units. The Asian nation also happens to be GM's largest market, and according to the report in Automotive News, China's car market may grow to be larger than the US, Japan and Germany combined in three years' time.
About the news his company was bested in China by VW last quarter, GM CEO Dan Akerson is quoted saying, "It's not whether you're the biggest car manufacturer. It's whether you want to be the most profitable." It should be noted of these figures that GM includes truck figures, yet excludes Hong Kong and Macau from its Chinese sales numbers, while VW does just the opposite. Through September of this year, Volkswagen had 5 of the 10 best selling vehicles in China. GM boasted three of the cars on that list.

EPA upping its game amid Volkswagen probe

In the wake of the Volkswagen emissions-cheating scandal, the Environmental Protection Agency vowed to crack down on the auto industry with renewed vigor. That process has started. Janet McCabe, the agency's assistant administrator, said Tuesday that the EPA has already obtained a range of vehicles for testing purposes and that its enforcement staff is working as quickly as possible to determine whether other automakers are gaming emission results. "That's another detail we'd rather be obscure about, so that we can make sure people don't know what we're doing." For now, she said the agency is focused on diesel vehicles. But the scope of the new examinations could broaden to include gasoline-powered cars. The renewed efforts could include more light-duty vehicles or focus on heavy-duty trucks. The testing procedures could use dynamometers or portable emissions equipment. Right now, pretty much everything is a possibility. "We're going to become unpredictable, we're upping our game and we're going to use the whole range of technology that we have," she said. That technology now includes a heavy-duty truck chassis dynamometer at the EPA's national Vehicle and Fuel Emissions Laboratory in Ann Arbor, MI. Officials unveiled the $3 million piece of equipment Tuesday and hailed it as the first of its kind in North America. A Freightliner Super Truck, which boosted its fuel efficiency to 12 miles per gallon with the help of a $40 million federal grant, rolled onto the dynamometer in a ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday. McCabe said the new dynamometer will allow the EPA to assess the performance of the entire truck – not just its engine – and help engineers test 18-wheel tractor trailers measure, hydrocarbons, greenhouse gases, carbon monoxide and more. In the past, it took about a week for engineers to remove an engine from a truck and prep it for testing. With the new equipment, drivers can open a garage door and drive the rigs straight onto the dynamometer. A wealth of new, real-time data will be helpful as the EPA works with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in planning for the second phase of the government's greenhouse gas emission and fuel-efficiency standards for medium and heavy-duty engines and vehicles – a process now underway. While there's been a crush of attention on Volkswagen's scheming to circumvent emissions test, in the real world, it's these medium and heavy-duty trucks that are the bigger polluters.