BERLIN (AP) — Top directors of Volkswagen AG plan to give a two-year contract extension CEO Martin Winterkorn, who emerged on top of a power struggle earlier this year with company patriarch Ferdinand Piech.

The automaker said Wednesday that the executive committee of its supervisory board agreed to propose to the full board that Winterkorn be granted a contract through the end of 2018 at a meeting scheduled for Sept. 25.

Piech, for years Volkswagen's dominant figure, resigned as board chairman in April. He said in an interview that he was "at a distance" from Winterkorn, but the CEO obtained support from other board members.

The company has yet to choose a permanent new board chairman. Piech's former deputy Berthold Huber, a former leader of Germany's biggest industrial union, is the interim chairman.