Thursday 24 September 2015 8:22 am

Volkswagen emissions scandal: Car giant’s share price rises after Martin Winterkorn resigns as class action law suit filed

Volkswagen's share price opened higher this morning after embattled chief executive Martin Winterkorn resigned yesterday afternoon in the wake of the emissions cheating scandal.

Winterkorn, who has been at the helm of the car giant since 2007, said he had been "shocked" by the scandal – but insisted he knew nothing about the "misconduct".

“I am doing this in the interests of the company even though I am not aware of any wrong-doing on my part,” Winterkorn said.

Investors backed his move, with the share price up 4.3 per cent at pixel time.

But the firm is not out of the woods yet, with Chicago law firm Clifford Law filing a class action lawsuit against the company over its "detect devices", which enabled diesel vehicles made between 2009 and 2015 to pass tests. In the US, Volkswagen has been told to recall around 480,000 vehicles but the car giant has admitted as many as 11m vehicles were fitted with the device.

Robert Clifford, partner at Clifford Law, said the lawsuit had been filed at a district court in northern Illinois. The complaint was filed on behalf of two Volkswagen owners, who said they would not have bought the vehicles if they had known they were not environmentally friendly.

Volkswagen is expected to face a criminal investigation in the US, as well as other probes in France, Germany and South Korea.

The scandal has wiped billions off Volkswagen's value since the start of the week, although yesterday its share price closed up more than five per cent.