VW Signals Management Changes Lie Ahead

Investors sent stock in scandal-hit car giant Volkswagen surging on Tuesday, as the firm announced it was considering reshuffling its board and replacing chief executive Matthias Mueller.

"The Volkswagen group is considering further evolving the leadership structure, which could be connected with changes in the board... a change to the chief executive could be involved," VW said in a statement, adding that Mueller had "signalled he was open to play a part in the changes" in conversations with supervisory board chief Hans Dieter Poetsch.

Shares in Volkswagen leapt on the news, adding as much as five percent before falling back slightly to gain 4.5 percent by the close of trade in Frankfurt.

Business newspaper Handelsblatt and national news agency DPA reported Herbert Diess, head of the VW brand -- one of the group's 12 makes of cars, trucks and motorbikes -- was slated to take Mueller's place.

Meanwhile Germany's biggest-selling newspaper Bild reported that a change of CEO "has been planned for months" by the Porsche and Piech families, descendants of VW Beetle inventor Ferdinand Porsche who control holding company Porsche SE, VW's majority shareholder.

The curtain could fall on Mueller's leadership as soon as Friday, when multiple sources including Bild and Handelsblatt reported the supervisory board will meet.

A Volkswagen spokesman declined to comment on the rumours when contacted by AFP.

Mueller, a former chief executive of sportscar-building VW subsidiary Porsche AG, was brought in to replace Martin Winterkorn in 2015 and is contracted to serve until 2020.

Longtime CEO Winterkorn quit after the firm admitted to manipulating 11 million diesel vehicles worldwide to cheat regulatory emissions tests in a scandal that became known as "dieselgate".

Software known as a "defeat device" allowed vehicles to reduce exhaust pollution under test conditions, while in on-road driving conditions they emitted much higher levels of pollutants.

Mueller has chivvied the mammoth carmaker into a massive restructuring, aiming offer electric versions of many of its models and slim down its operations over the coming decade.

But he himself has landed in prosecutors' sights over suspicions he may have known about the diesel cheating before it became public and failed in his duty to inform investors.

Last month, Mueller said that chief executives of big companies deserved high pay because "one always has one foot in jail". (AFP)