German prosecutors are looking at whether former Volkswagen chief executive Martin Winterkorn was too slow to tell investors about the potential cost of the diesel-emissions scandal, adding to the legal woes weighing on Europe’s largest carmaker.

Volkswagen’s top executives knew a year ago that some of the company’s cars were markedly less fuel efficient than had been officially stated, German paper Bild am Sonntag reported yesterday.

The revelations about Volkswagen’s emissions fraud, added to recent scandals at Siemens and Deutsche Bank, show a German corporate establishment that is out of step with a society that is actively trying to atone for 20th-century sins, writes Leonid Bershidsy

Along with the forthcoming new Ford Mondeo, the new Volkswagen Passat will be one of the most important new cars launched this year and last week — at the impressive Volkswagen Design Centre in Potsdam — the new car got its world premiere.