BREAKING: Volkswagen CEO Resigning After Cheating Scandal

Updated at noon:

Martin Winterkorn has resigned as CEO of Volkswagen after the German automaker’s stunning admission that it had intentionally circumvented smog-reduction standards on more than 11 million diesel-engine vehicles sold in the United States, CNBC is reporting.

Winterkorn said in a statement issued by the company that he was “shocked by the events of the past few days.”

“Above all, I am stunned that misconduct on such a scale was possible in the Volkswagen Group,” he said.

He said he was “not aware of any wrongdoing” on his part, but accepted “responsibility for the irregularities that have been found in diesel engines and have therefore requested the Supervisory Board to agree on terminating my function as CEO of the Volkswagen Group.”

The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday accused Volkswagen of intentionally circumventing smog-reduction standards and ordered the German automaker to recall about a half million vehicles.

But on Tuesday, the automaker said the scandal was larger than previously believed, and more than 11 million vehicles were manipulated to emit lower levels of harmful emissions in testing than on roads.

The EPA said so-called “defeat device” software intentionally “detects when the car is undergoing official emissions testing, and turns full emissions controls on only during the test,” then turn off during normal driving conditions and emit nitrogen oxide pollutants that contribute to the creation of ozone and smog. The pollutants are linked to a range of respiratory health problems.

Winterkorn’s announcement as head of the world’s second-largest automaker comes as the burgeoning scandal has wiped off nearly $29 million off its value this week.

A successor to Winterkorn, who spent eight years at the helm of Volkswagen after starting his career at Audi in 1981, is expected at Friday’s supervisory board meeting.

The defeat devices were installed in the control modules of primarily 2.0 liter engines in the Volkswagen Golf, Jetta, Sportswagen, Beetle and Audi A3 vehicles manufactured between 20089 and 2015.

On Tuesday, Volkswagen AG and its American division were named in a potentially huge class-action complaint filed in Los Angeles federal court.

“In order for VW to increase sales, consumers were told they were buying a diesel vehicle that was cleaner than a gas-powered engine, and now we find out that was not true,” said Richard McCune, a partner in an Inland Empire law firm that filed the lawsuit.

“Volkswagen was deceptive in the manufacturing and the marketing of the vehicles,” he alleged. “What’s worse, not only did they lie to their customers but essentially to the entire population as they polluted the environment with an unlawful level of contaminants.”

Also on Tuesday, New York Attorney General A.G. Schneiderman announced an investigation into admissions by Volkswagen that it had employed the software to cheat on emissions tests.

In Michigan, the hub of the North American auto industry, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration administrator Mark Rosekind told auto leaders that regulators are questioning everything” in the wake of the Volkswagen scandal and a string of recalls.

“You have to question all assumptions,” Rosekind said. “You don’t have to say ‘was that a lie?’ You just have to challenge every assumption when information is provided.”

Also on Patch

• EPA: Volkswagen Intentionally Violated Emissions Rules
• Huge Volkswagen Scandal Just Got Even Bigger
• Suit Targets VW Over Cars Designed to Cheat Smog Tests