Volkswagen pressured to recall 323700 cars in India

The government on Wednesday called emission test cheating by German auto giant Volkswagen as a “well thought-out crime” and said that all diesel passenger vehicles in India will come under scanner in the next six months to check their compliance with emission norms.

Last month the vehicle maker was issued notice by the Indian government over the alleged charges of fudging the emission norms, as it has done in the US.

A government-ordered probe here also found violations on the part of the company, following which Volkswagen earlier on Monday announced recall of 3,23,700 vehicles sold in India between 2008 and 2015.

It was first revealed in September that VW had given some of its cars software that lets them emit less pollutants in tests than on the roads.

Ambuj Sharma, additional secretary of the department of heavy industries, had said in an interview on 2 December that the roads ministry will decide whether Volkswagen vehicles in India are fitted with the defeat device.

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 plan is to determine whether other companies are also flouting emission norms on the lines of cars from the VW group and GM.

He added that now the matter is being forwarded to Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and they will examine the issue and take the action according to Motor Vehicle Act. Volkswagen said in a statement that it would present a solution to the ministry and ARAI for approval, and carry out the recall in phases. The 1.5-litre and 1.6-litre diesel engines will go through certain hardware tweaks.

Globally, cars powered by these engines have the so-called defeat device, a software that can detect when a vehicle is being tested and manipulate performance to improve emission results. The technical updates are expected to be implemented from the first quarter of 2016 and will be continued in a step-wise manner.

The firm also said it will continue to sell vehicles equipped with the EA189 engines in India.

More and more countries are putting pressure on Volkswagen to recall and fix the cars fitted with the illegal software.