As CEO, I accept 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.
India is and will remain an important strategic growth market for the Volkswagen Group. We are convinced that VW will take on a key role in the Indian automobile market in the long-term.
The European auto industry made a commitment to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by an average of 140 grams per kilometer. But then there was a significant change in what customers wanted in their vehicles.
The violations of these diesel motors by our company go against everything that Volkswagen stands for... at this time, I don't yet have the answers to all the questions. I'm utterly sorry that we have damaged trust in this way. I offer my deepest apologies to our customers, the authorities, and to the public at large for our misconduct.
VW's future is increasingly being decided in China, Russia, India, the Americas and Southeast Asia. This is where we will generate most of our growth in future.
When a customer sits inside the car, then they have to have the feeling that it's an Audi - whether it's the leatherwork or the bodywork. All these things must be typically Audi.
