Four Audi directors to leave

Four board members at Volkswagen subsidiary Audi are set to step down, a German magazine reported Friday, saying the firm feels under pressure to react to diesel emissions scandals.

Volkswagen chief executive Matthias Mueller has told Audi finance director Axel Strotbeck, production chief Hubert Waltl, human resources director Thomas Sigi and sales boss Dietmar Voggenreiter they will soon be asked to stand down, Manager magazine reported, citing anonymous sources at the firm.

Audi has yet to make a formal decision on the four directors' departure, and no successors have yet been chosen, the report added.

An Audi spokesman declined to comment on the report when contacted by AFP.

According to Manager magazine, the move represents the Ingolstadt-based luxury carmaker's response to a swelling diesel emissions scandal.

It and comes after it last week announced a recall of some 850,000 vehicles powered by the fuel in Europe.

Chief executive Rupert Stadler is set to keep his job for now, the magazine said, but could be next to quit.

German prosecutors earlier this month arrested a former manager at Audi, Giovanni Pamio, after he was formally charged by the US Department of Justice over so-called "defeat devices".

Such software, used by Volkswagen to cheat regulatory tests on 11 million vehicles worldwide, reduced levels of harmful nitrogen oxides (NOx) in car exhausts under test conditions, but allowed much higher levels to be emitted in on-road driving.

Investigators said at the time that there was no evidence to link current or former Audi board members to the cheating.

Meanwhile, prosecutors in southern city Munich announced in June that they were investigating Audi for use of defeat devices in Germany as well as the US.

source: AFP