(ANSA) - Rome, October 7 - Volkswagen on Wednesday elected
Chief Financial Officer Hans Dieter Poetsch to chair its board
of directors, a move that came as the German automaker
struggles to contain a scandal over emission-test rigging in
the US.
Ahead of the announcement, VW's new CEO said the company
planned to launch in January a recall of vehicles with the
software at the center of the scandal and that it aims to fix
them all by the end of next year.
Volkswagen has said up to 11 million vehicles worldwide
across several of its brands contain the diesel engine with the
software used to cheat on U.S. emissions tests.
CEO Matthias Mueller told the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine
Zeitung: "It will hopefully be fewer, but in any case still far
too many."
Asked when the recall will begin, Mueller said in the
interview published Wednesday that "care goes before speed"
and that if everything goes "as planned, we can start the
recall in January."
VW elects Poetsch as chairman
Recall to start in January says Mueller