Former VW chief holds firm during grilling on emissions deception

Berlin

VOLKSWAGEN'S former chief executive, Martin Winterkorn, yielded no ground on Jan 19 during a polite grilling by German lawmakers over the carmaker's diesel-emissions deception, but he astonished them by insisting that he had not heard the term "defeat device" before September 2015, when the scandal broke.

Appearing in public for the first time since he resigned over the case, Mr Winterkorn, who worked at the company for more than 35 years, contended, as he has all along, that he had not been aware of any wrongdoing.