German carmaker Audi’s chief executive, Rupert Stadler, has been arrested, parent company Volkswagen has said.
A spokesman for VW said: “We confirm that Mr Stadler was arrested this morning. The hearing to determine whether he will be remanded is ongoing.”
Audi has been caught up in the diesel emissions scandal that has plagued VW.
Last month, Audi admitted that another 60,000 A6 and A7 models with diesel engines have emission software issues.
The number is on top of the 850,000 recalled last year by the Volkswagen subsidiary, of which only some have been found to require modification.
The so-called dieselgate emissions scandal first came to light in September 2015.
Volkswagen admitted that nearly 600,000 cars sold in the US were fitted with “defeat devices” designed to circumvent emissions tests.
It said it had installed software in 11 million diesel cars worldwide that could tell when they were being tested and cut their emissions.
On the open road, untested, the level of emissions would in practice be far higher – up to 40 times as bad as recorded under laboratory conditions.
Source: BBC