Former Top Porsche Developer, Suspended in VW Scandal, Quits for Good

---

--DOWNLOAD BLOG MALL NIGERIA APP--
Connect all your favorite blogs and website in one app. Get latest post on the go
Download on Playstore Here

---

---

The former head of development for Porsche, Wolfgang Hatz, helped develop the motor at the center of the Volkswagen emissions scandal. CreditSipa, via Associated Press Images

FRANKFURT — The head of development for Porsche has left the automaker seven months after he was suspended for possible involvement in Volkswagen’s emissions cheating scandal, Porsche said Tuesday.

Wolfgang Hatz, 57, a well-known figure in motoring circles, left Porsche at his own request, the company said. Mr. Hatz was suspended in September soon after Volkswagen, which is Porsche’s parent company, admitted rigging diesel engines to evade emissions tests.

Porsche said in a statement Tuesday that an internal investigation had found no evidence that Mr. Hatz shared responsibility for the emissions cheating. But he decided to leave the company in light of the continuing investigation and suspension, Porsche said.

Volkswagen diesel vehicles, as well as some Audi and Porsche models, were programmed to run emissions controls at full capacity only when the cars were being tested. At other times they flouted pollution limits.

Mr. Hatz, the former head of engine and transmission development at Volkswagen, helped develop the motor at the center of the emissions scandal. He was also a critic of the pollution regulations imposed on automakers.

In 2007, shortly after being named head of engine and transmission development at Volkswagen, Mr. Hatz complained at an event in San Francisco that new rules on tailpipe emissions in California were unrealistic.

“I see it as nearly impossible for us,” Mr. Hatz said of a proposed regulation during the event, which was filmed by an auto website.

As recently as February, Oliver Blume, the chief executive of Porsche, said he would like to bring Mr. Hatz back to the company. In a statement Tuesday, Wolfgang Porsche, a member of the family that founded the sports-car maker and the largest shareholder in Volkswagen, praised Mr. Hatz’s “outstanding work” and gave him credit for reviving Porsche’s racing program.

Mr. Hatz had overseen Porsche’s famed development and testing center in Weissach, Germany, since 2011. He was responsible for the introduction of the 918 Spyder, a plug-in hybrid super sports car that can accelerate from zero to 60 miles an hour in less than three seconds.

Mr. Hatz will be succeeded by Michael Steiner, 51, who has held various management positions in Porsche research and development, most recently as head of quality.

AD-Place Ur Text Link Advert Here/Advertise Here