VW has put an executive in charge of managing the emissions scandal, but she won't start until January

Volkswagen has appointed Daimler manager Christine Hohmann-Dennhardt as new board member for Integrity and Legal Affairs, the car makers said on Friday.

Hohmann-Dennhardt will start her new job on January 1, 2016, and one of her key responsibilities will be to address the scandal over Volkswagen's rigging of diesel emissions tests.

The company faces a recall of about 8.5 million cars in Europe, after it admitted that they're emitting poisonous emissions at rates far above regulatory limits. The scandal erupted after U.S. regulators accused Volkswagen of including software that lets the cars cheat on emissions tests.