Another senior executive placed on suspension following the revelation of the Volkswagen Group’s diesel emissions cheating has stepped down.

Porsche confirmed its R&D chief Wolfgang Hatz has resigned due to the ongoing internal investigations at the VW Group and his resulting prolonged leave of absence.

Hatz, who was also in charge of engine development at the VW Group, was placed on suspension along with nine other senior executives last October while several investigations into the diesel emissions scandal were conducted. Caught up in the scandal is Porsche’s Cayenne Diesel.

No evidence of co-responsibility found

In its statement, Porsche said Hatz had been helping with the investigation and so far there’s been “evidence of any co-responsibility” regarding the matter.

Hatz’s resignation follows those of Ulrich Hackenberg and Heinz-Jakob Neusser, the respective R&D chiefs of the Audi and Volkswagen brands. Since the revelation of the scandal we’ve also seen Martin Winterkorn step down from the CEO role at VW Group, Michael Horn step down from the CEO role at VW USA and Winfried Vahland step down from the head role at the newly developed Volkswagen North America unit.

Replacing Hatz as the new R&D chief at Porsche is Michael Steiner who’s previous role was in engineering and quality management. Steiner has worked for Porsche for the past 14 years and prior to that worked for seven years at Daimler.

Complete coverage on the ongoing scandal can be found at this link.

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