Former Volkswagen chief executive Martin Winterkorn has stepped down as chairman of luxury brand Audi amid an investigation of two emissions scandals that occurred during his reign at Europe's largest carmaker.
Winterkorn quit his post at Audi yesterday, a spokesman at the Ingolstadt-based carmaker said today.
The 68-year-old Winterkorn was forced to resign as VW group chief executive by the carmaker's influential labour leaders and the state of Lower Saxony, the car makers second biggest shareholder, on September 23.
This came five days after the company's rigging of diesel emissions tests became public in the US.
Volkswagen has been rocked by revelations that its diesel cars were equipped with a software capable of cheating emissions rules, affecting 11 million vehicles worldwide including Audi models.
The scandal took on a new dimension last week when VW admitted it also manipulated carbon dioxide emissions levels of 800,000 cars, adding this could cost it another €2 billion besides the €6.7 billion it has set aside to cover costs related to the diesel-emissions fiasco.
A successor to Winterkorn as Audi chairman has yet to be named, the spokesman said.
