“The Volkswagen group is considering further evolving the leadership structure, which could be connected with changes in the board… a change to the chief executive could be involved,” VW said in a statement.

Both Handelsblatt and Reuters report that Müller has been removed from his post.

Supervisory board chief Hans Dieter Poetsch had been “speaking with different members of the supervisory and executive boards” about moving or replacing some of them, the statement went on, adding that Müller “signalled he was open to play a part in the changes.”

Handelsblatt reported that Herbert Diess, head of the VW brand — one of the group's 12 makes of cars, trucks and motorbikes — was slated to take Müller's place.

Volkswagen did not respond immediately when contacted about the report.

Müller, a former chief executive of VW subsidiary Porsche, was brought in to replace Martin Winterkorn.

The longtime CEO quit after the firm admitted in 2015 to manipulating 11 million diesel vehicles worldwide to cheat regulatory emissions tests in a scandal that became known as “dieselgate.”

Müller has chivvied the mammoth carmaker into a massive restructuring, aiming to electrify many of its lines and slim down its massive operations over the coming decades.

But he himself has landed in prosecutors' sights over suspicions he may have known about the diesel cheating before it became public and failed in his duty to inform investors.

Last month, Müller said that chief executives of big companies deserved high pay because “one always has one foot in jail”.