Volkswagen Emission Scandal: Audi's R&D Chief To Be Suspended

Audi's Development Chief, Stefan Knirsch will be suspended this coming week as part of the Diesel Gate scandal investigation. Knirsch has already been asked to clear his desk.

Investigations revealed that Stefan Knirsch, who is also a Board Member of Audi, knew about the cheat device in the 3.0-litre diesel engines, but gave a false oath.

Audi admitted that it had used an illegal cheat device in its 3.0-litre V6 diesel engines in the US, where the entire emission scandal kick started. Volkswagen and Audi declined to comment on this matter.

Stefan Knirsch replaced Ulrich Hackenberg, the top engineer at Audi and Volkswagen a year ago. Knirsch was the former head of engine development. Hackenberg quit the company after him and two other executives who were closely associated with the development of the 2.0-litre Volkswagen diesel engines were suspended.