Berlin (dpa) – Volkswagen chief Matthias Mueller is expected to meet US President Barack Obama during his two-day visit to Germany starting Sunday amid an emissions scandal that has engulfed the German carmaker and led to legal action in the United States.
Unnamed officials at VW told dpa that Mueller is among the invited guests attending a special dinner on Sunday for Obama, which German Chancellor Angela is hosting at a Hanover castle in the northern state of Lower Saxony. There has been no official confirmation.
VW is one of Lower Saxony’s showcase companies, and the state is the company’s largest shareholder, so it would be considered something of a snub if Mueller were not present.
The dinner at Hanover’s Herrenhausen will follow Obama and Merkel’s launch on Sunday of Hanover’s annual industrial trade fair, where the United States will be the partner nation for the first time.
Mueller is also expected to be among the small group of business and political leaders selected to join Merkel and Obama for an official tour of the trade fair on Monday morning.
The tour might also include Obama and Merkel dropping by the VW stand where the focus this year will be on digitalization and electric-powered vehicles.
However, the Germany’s reputation for business ethics has taken a battering in the US after Volkswagen admitted last September that it had cheated on diesel exhaust emissions tests around the world.
About 580,000 VW vehicles in the US were equipped with the software aimed at manipulating the emission tests.
So Mueller will be hoping that VW has taken a major step towards resolving the scandal before Obama jets into Hanover on Sunday.
German daily Die Welt reported on Wednesday that VW and US authorities had reached a deal for VW to pay 5,000 dollars to every US owner of an affected vehicle.
Under the deal, the company would also bear the cost of repairs to bring the cars into compliance with US air-pollution standards.
