Volkswagen to recall 323700 diesel cars in India

A day after Volkswagen India made the biggest ever recall announcement in the country, it has denied the government’s finding that its cars are equipped with “defeat device”.

“Volkswagen has agreed to recall all the vehicles fitted with the faulty engine to fix and rectify the system so that it does not suffer from the emission issue”, Ambuj Sharma, additional secretary in the ministry of heavy industries, told ETAuto.

As per the records of Volkswagen Group India, from 2008 to November-end, approximately 198,500 cars from Volkswagen, 88,700 cars from Skoda and 36,500 cars from Audi sold in India were equipped with the EA 189 engine series.

Volkswagen says a “customer-friendly” remedy has been determined for most of the affected vehicles, and the vehicles remain otherwise technically safe and road worthy until the respective technical measures can be implemented.

Last month, the government said it sent VW a show-cause notice after tests by the Automotive Research Association of India showed significant variations between on-road tests and those done in laboratories. Volkswagen India sells Jetta model, while Octavia and Audi A4 and A6 models are retailed by Skoda and Audi, respectively. The installation of the flow transformer and the software adjustment to the 1.6-litre engine is expected to take around an hour, while the 2.0-litre engine – that will receive only a software upgrade – will be serviced to make it compatible with emission norms in as little as 30 minutes.

“Thanks to advances in engine development and improved simulation of currents inside complex air intake systems, in combination with software optimization geared towards this, it has been possible to produce a relatively simple and customer-friendly measure”, Volkswagen said in a press release.

On Tuesday, Volkswagen Group India announced a voluntary recall for updating all cars fitted with the EA 189 engines in the Indian market. It faces fine of up to Dollars 18 billion in the US. Overall global sales at the Volkswagen brand were down 5.3% in October.

The results suggest Americans are turning their backs on the German brand since it admitted in September to installing software to cheat on emissions tests on 11 million diesel vehicles worldwide.

A company official reiterated previous statements that Volkswagen is working to develop repairs for the affected vehicles.