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Volkswagen Group Chairman Ferdinand Piech resigns

Ferdinand Piech, Volkswagen Group's chairman of the supervisory board, has resigned from the company. His wife, Ursula, has also left her position on the board. A statement put out by VW in German said the move was due to the fact that "mutual trust is no longer present," and the board's deputy chairman, Berthold Huber, will be interim chairman. It's been just two weeks since Ferdinand Piech told Germany's Der Spiegel magazine that he didn't want Group CEO Martin Winterkorn to become the next chairman and that he was keeping the CEO at a distance. That public comment surprised just about everyone, and led to a meeting in Piech's office in Austria. The leadership committee supported Winterkorn, and that was backed up by official, pro-Winterkorn messages from VW labor leaders and the German state of Lower Saxony. After that meeting, Piech agreed to support Winterkorn in public, but it was widely suspected that the fight wasn't over. Now it might be. This is not a changing, but rather an explosion of the guard. Piech lived for VW, and he and his Porsche kin still have a 51-percent stake in the Volkswagen Group. Frankly, we have a feeling that this still isn't over. The official statement from VW in English is below. Statement of the Executive Committee of the Supervisory Board of Volkswagen AG Wolfsburg, 25 April 2015 -- The Executive Committee of the Supervisory Board of Volkswagen AG discussed again today in detail the situation of the Volkswagen Group. 1.: The members of the Executive Committee have unanimously determined that in view of the background of the last weeks the mutual trust necessary for successful cooperation no longer exists. 2.: For this reason Professor Dr. Ferdinand K. Piech has resigned with immediate effect from his position as Chairman of the Supervisory Board and from all his mandates as a Supervisory Board member within the Volkswagen Group. In addition, Ms. Ursula Piech has resigned with immediate effect from all her Supervisory Board mandates within the Volkswagen Group. 3.: The position of Chairman of the Supervisory Board will be temporarily assumed by the Deputy Chairman Berthold Huber. Mr. Berthold Huber will chair both the Supervisory Board meeting on May 4 as well as the Annual General Meeting on May 5, 2015. 4.: Under the chair of Mr. Berthold Huber the representatives of shareholders and employees will in close cooperation determine the candidate for the new Chairman of the Supervisory Board.

There might be a second VW software cheat

The initial flurry of news about Volkswagen's diesel scandal is just beginning to settle down, but the company is months away from actually having any of the affected vehicles fixed. A stop sale is still in effect on new examples in the US, as well. The remedy process now faces yet another hurdle because the Environmental Protection Agency is requesting more info about other previously undisclosed emissions software on the engines, Bloomberg reports. Separate from the defeat device that evades tests, this new bit of code reportedly helps warm up the engine. However, automakers are supposed to disclose to the EPA any software that can affect emissions. The tech isn't necessarily against the law, but the regulatory agency needs to know about it during evaluations. The company didn't reveal this system until applying for certification on the latest TDIs. "VW did very recently provide EPA with very preliminary information on an auxiliary emissions control device that VW said was included in one or more model years," EPA spokesperson Nick Conger told Bloomberg. In response to the disclosure, VW took back its application for the diesels until it provided more details to the EPA on the previously undisclosed code. So far, there's no evidence that this code is actually another defeat device, though. Regulators are preparing an onslaught of tests on the revised engine to make sure the German automaker isn't gaming the system again. VW has until November 20 to outline a fix for the diesels to the California Air Resources Board. In response to the scandal, the company is preparing for severe cutbacks to have enough money to pay for all of the expected fines and repairs. It also recently announced plans for a serious electrification push in the near future.

VW midsize crossover production headed for Chattanooga

Potential labor woes aside, it looks like Volkswagen's Chattanooga, TN factory must have done something that impressed the bosses in Germany, because it sounds like the three-year-old factory is set to score a second model.
The factory currently builds the Passat, and has been in the running alongside VW's Puebla, Mexico factory to build a new crossover vehicle, likely based on the CrossBlue Concept. According to Bloomberg, a pair of unnamed sources have confirmed that Chattanooga is the favorite ahead of an official announcement.
When last we heard about the CrossBlue Concept, word was that a production decision had been delayed over concerns about the three-row CUV's business case. That August 2013 story claimed that a decision regarding the CrossBlue would be pushed back until early in 2014, which means we're ripe for some sort of news, whether good or bad.