Volkswagen Group intends to fire a group of employees implicated in the diesel emissions fraud scandal. German prosecutors in Brunswick have identified an inner circle of 39 “suspicious engineers” it believes contributed directly to the emissions cheating. It’s expected that VW will carry out these terminations as quickly as possible, with additional waves of firings to follow.

According to Handelsblatt, Volkswagen made the decision to cleanse its ranks after being granted access to the prosecution’s investigation files in July. The automaker followed up with a series of employee “interviews” and a month-long review process. VW has already announced the dismissal of six high-ranking employees, with former development head Heinz-Jakob Neußer (Neusser) being the most noteworthy.  (Read More…)

There’s a whole lotta shaking going on at Volkswagen’s boardroom, with two new members coming in and one set to oversee the ongoing diesel scandal.

Via press release, the parent company announced Wednesday the arrivals of VW veteran Ralf Brandstätter and Skoda’s Dr. Frank Welch to the namesake brand’s Board of Management. Welch will succeed Heinz-Jakob Neusser — suspended from his post since September 2015 — as the Board Member for Development, while Brandstätter replaces Francisco Javier Garcia Sanz as the brand’s Board Member for Procurement.

(Read More…)