Embattled German carmaker Volkswagen Friday named Matthias Mueller, head of its luxury sports car brand Porsche, as its new chief executive, tasked with steering it out of the wreckage of its pollution test rigging scandal.

Mueller, 62, will take over with immediate effect, replacing Martin Winterkorn who stepped down two days earlier, said the head of the supervisory board, Berthold Huber, in the carmaker's headquarters in Wolfsburg, northern Germany.