In a statement issued after an emergency meeting, the board’s executive committee said it “cannot see that there was any deliberate attempt not to inform the capital market”.

If accepted by a Braunschweig state court, the indictment would lead to a trial date being set.

The former U.S. regulator who helped bring Volkswagen’s cheating to light dismissed the company’s arguments.

“The excuse that top managers knew nothing is very weak,” Alberto Ayala, who served at the California Air Resources Board (CARB) until 2017, told German news magazine Spiegel.