Mr Winterkorn said: “I personally am deeply sorry that we have broken the trust of our customers and the public”.

Winterkorn said the company will “cooperate fully” with the EPA investigation and has ordered “an external investigation of this matter”.

A company representative told CNBC on Sunday that there is a partial sales stop of 2015 and 2016 diesel vehicles with the four-cylinder 2.0 liter TDI engine. Stadler said that if VW were a US company, then the CEO would have gone more or less immediately.

For the second time in my life, it appears that the USA diesel passenger auto market has been mortally wounded by a vehicle company claiming to be its champion.

Volkswagen, which recently edged out Japan’s Toyota to become the world’s top-selling automaker, has had a hard year, its share price having fallen from more than 250 euros amid signs of faltering sales in the USA and China.

The EPA said cars had been fitted with sophisticated software algorithms which detect when they are undergoing officials emissions testing, and turns full emissions controls on only reducing the test. It is a type of software known as a “defeat device”. The cars, built in the last seven years, include the Audi A3, VW Jetta, Beetle, Golf and Passat models.

The EPA has issued the carmaker with a “notice of violation” and it could face a hefty fine.

“We at Volkswagen will do everything that must be done in order to re-establish the trust that so many people have placed in us, and we will do everything necessary in order to reverse the damage this has caused”.

Based located on the 482,000 diesel passenger motorcars available from Volkswagen inside of the You can introduce.S. ever since 2008, the automaker could supposedly face a sentence of 37,500 for each individual 4wd found to take part in non-compliance, for getting a whole cost of usd18 billion.

“Our climate policy stands for itself and I think it’s internationally recognized that Germany is one of the drivers on the way to (the worldwide climate summit in) Paris”, he said.