Germany orders recall of Volkswagen diesel cars

German transport authorities will order auto giant Volkswagen to recall 2.4 million diesel vehicles in Germany equipped with pollution-cheating software, a spokesman told AFP on Thursday.

Also, Germany’s transport ministry, which has in the past said about 2.8 million cars in Germany were affected, said Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt would make a statement on Volkswagen at 11 a.m. (0900 GMT).

A Volkswagen spokesman said that the company had no immediate comment.

“[We’re] forcing Volkswagen to recall 2.4 million vehicles in Germany”.

Volkswagen has disclosed to USA regulators that there’s additional suspect software in its 2016 diesel models that would potentially help exhaust systems run cleaner during government tests.

Volkswagen has yet to provide a timetable for the USA recall, and has suspended sales of diesel cars there.

But the German regulator said Thursday it was hard to set a deadline for the end of the recall because the hardware fix required for cars fitted with 1.6 liter diesel engines would only be ready from September 2016.

His successor, Matthias Mueller, proposed last week that VW start recalling the cars in January but said the programme would take all year.

However, Audi Volkswagen Korea had not recalled the affected models since the defect was discovered in 2013, during inspections by the Environment Ministry.