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VW CEO says priority is to ‘regain trust’ after emissions scandal
Still reeling from the fallout of its emissions scandal, Volkswagen (VW) CEO Matthias Mueller told reporters that "rules were broken and boundaries overstepped… it's very painful and we apologize sincerely."
VW is accused of manipulating emissions test data on its diesel vehicles in the U.S. and Europe. The beleaguered carmaker is facing a $9 billion buy back of its diesel vehicles.
"We know that we have disappointed many people – people who have placed their trust in Volkswagen. We stand by our responsibility. And we are doing everything in our power to regain trust," Mueller told an annual financial conference Thursday in Wolfsburg, Germany.
The newly installed boss of the German auto-making giant assured that, "this will remain our most important task until the very last vehicle has been put in order."
Last week, on the back of so-called "Dieselgate," the German automaker reported heavy losses for 2015, with net loss for last year at 1.582 billion euros ($1.77 billion).
Volkswagen sold 9.9 million vehicles to customers in 2015, 2 percent fewer than in the previous year.
The group is in the process of a major realignment of the company and said it was making good progress with this. "2016 will be a year of transition for us, a year in which we will accelerate the transformation" said Muller, adding that the company aims to have a more efficient structure by 2017.
He also said that the group is planning to launch over 20 additional models by 2020.
