Volkswagen's pollution cheating programme was developed by dozens of managers, not just a handful of individuals as the company has suggested, news site Spiegel Online reported Wednesday.

The German auto giant last month caused global outrage when it admitted that it fitted 11 million diesel vehicles with software designed to cheat pollution tests.

Preliminary results of investigations carried out by VW and a US law firm suggest that "the emissions fraud was not only created by a small group of managers, as the company claims," said Spiegel Online without citing its source.

"Dozens of Volkswagen managers were implicated, insiders speak of at least 30 people," said the report, adding that "they are to be suspended".

A Volkswagen spokesman however rejected the claim, saying "the number is without foundation".

The group has promised to shed light on how the cheating could have happened, but top managers have already pointed the finger at a handful of people, and suspended several of them, without confirming their identities.

Volkswagen's new chief Matthias Mueller has said four employees had been suspended, adding however that he did not believe that top management could have been aware of the scam.

Among those suspended is the technical director of Audi, according to German media.

Meanwhile, Volkswagen's Czech brand Skoda said its former boss Winfried Vahland, who had been appointed to head the VW group's North America operations, had quit the company.

Vahland was leaving due to differences of opinion over the organisation of VW's North American operations, Skoda said, adding that the decision had nothing to do with the pollution cheating scandal.

ChemChina close to completing Pirelli takeover
Milan (AFP) Oct 14, 2015 –

ChemChina has completed the acquisition of just under 87 percent of Pirelli's ordinary shares, leaving it within touching distance of its goal of delisting the iconic Italian tyremaker.

Marco Polo Industrial Holding, a company created to facilitate the takeover and 65 percent owned by ChemChina, said its 15-euros-a-share offer valuing Pirelli at 7.4 billion euros (8.4 billion dollars) would be extended until October 27.

Analysts said this would allow Marco Polo to secure the 90 percent stake it needs to take the group private and begin a complex restructuring which will see Pirelli split in two and its most profitable part eventually refloated on the Milan bourse.

The 35 percent of Marco Polo not held by ChemChina is owned by Camfin, a holding jointly controlled by Rosneft and Pirelli's CEO Marco Tronchetti.

The foreign takeover of such a famous emblem of Italian industry made waves when it was announced in March but the outcry subsided quickly with Tronchetti defending it as an option that secures the company's future and avoids the risk of a hostile takeover by a direct rival.

Under ChemChina's plans, Pirelli will be split into two units, one producing high-end tyres drawing on the company's experience in Formula One, the other industrial ones.

The new unit producing high-tech and racing tyres will remain in Italy with a view to being relisted in the future while the mass market production will be merged with ChemChina's tyremaker Aeolus.

The deal gives Pirelli an inroad into a Chinese market in which it previously had little presence.

In an interview with AFP in March Tronchetti said the takeover would have no impact on Pirelli's "crucial" involvement in motorsport and also reassured fans of its famous racy calendars that the annual collection of scantily clad supermodels shot by superstar photographers would continue.