Government of India to Investigate All Diesel Vehicles for Violation of

It faces fine of up to Dollars 18 billion in the US.

The assertion on Volkswagen group spells further trouble for the embattled German auto major which has been forced to call back over 3.2 lakh cars in India after tests by an independent agency revealed that it was using a cheat software on diesel engines in the country too (like in United States and other European markets) to dodge stricter emission norms and enhance efficiencies.

Furthermore, the findings from the evaluations undertaken by VW Group India under the observation of ARAI show that the tested cars of the brands Volkswagen, Skoda and Audi are not violating the Bharat Stage IV emission norms.

The company is also likely to halt sales of some of its diesel cars till the time it complies with stated norms. The rest of the country gets Euro-III fuel.

The company had to respond to the notice issued by the ARAI by the end of November.

The carmaker will first present the required solution to Ministry of Heavy Industries and ARAI and upon receiving approval from the competent authorities, the respective brands of the Volkswagen Group in India will inform owners of the respective vehicles.

Ministry officials did not respond to phone calls. “The violation was detected when the on-road vehicles were tested”.

Volkswagen said it will continue with the recall process in India as it plans to adopt a holistic approach so that the problems do not crop up in future. The 1.5-litre and 1.6-litre diesel engines will go through certain hardware tweaks.

The existing software does not affect the handling, technical safety or the roadworthiness of the auto, it clarified.

According to Volkswagen Group India, the first solutions are expected to be implemented from the first quarter of 2016 and will be continued in a step-wise manner.

On Tuesday, the company announced a voluntary recall of 198,500 cars from Volkswagen, 88,700 cars from SKODA and 36,500 cars from Audi across various models sold in India. “All technical measures will be implemented as soon as they are available”.

New Delhi, Dec 2 The central government on Wednesday said that it will carry out extensive checks on all diesel passenger vehicles in the country within the next six months to ascertain if any violations of emission norms have taken place.

The so-called defeat devices turn on pollution controls when the vehicle is undergoing testing, and off when it is back on the road, allowing it to spew out harmful levels of nitrogen oxide.