BRAUNSCHWEIG (dpa-AFX) - Ex-VW CEO Martin Winterkorn has stated during his testimony on the diesel affair that in retrospect he probably acted differently. "From today's perspective, I should have asked more in-depth questions. I didn't do that," the 76-year-old said on Thursday before the Braunschweig Higher Regional Court. Winterkorn has been summoned there as a witness in the civil trial concerning the emissions manipulations at the Wolfsburg-based car manufacturer.

The day before, the former top manager had already denied any responsibility for the cheating software. "If I had been given a complete picture of the internal processes in the responsible specialist departments, I would not have hesitated to tackle and clarify the events directly," Winterkorn had said in an opening statement. He repeated this message on the second day when it came to specific meetings, correspondence and conversations in the months before the scandal came to light.

There had been reports of problems in the USA, Winterkorn said. In response to his inquiries, however, he was told that "there are still discussions with the authorities, but we'll get it sorted out". Winterkorn also gave an example of what he saw as insufficient information. Shortly before the manipulation became known, he had test-driven affected cars in Florida with many high-ranking colleagues. "That annoyed me personally because nobody said anything in Tampa," Winterkorn reported in his review. Nobody had informed him on site about the missing approval.

In court, the former CEO also emphasized that the Board of Management at VW had also been confronted with several problems worldwide in the summer of 2015. Shortly before the publication, he was concerned about a possible recall of a Porsche model, among other things, and he traveled to the Chinese government in Beijing due to serious problems with rear axles. The message behind this: The US market was important, but in the summer months of 2015 it was just one arena among many for a global corporation.

Since 2018, the trial under the Capital Markets Model Case Act (KapMug) has been negotiating possible compensation for investors who suffered share price losses after the scandal came to light. Currently around 4.4 billion euros are at stake. After Herbert Diess and Matthias Müller, Winterkorn is the third former VW CEO to be questioned on the matter. If Winterkorn's questioning continues, further dates have been blocked for the end of February./bch/DP/men