On Tuesday, the Mumbai-headquartered Volkswagen Group India said that approximately 323,700 cars of Volkswagen, Skoda and Audi in India are equipped with the EA 189 family of diesel engines.
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After the Volkswagen scandal, the Government of India has asked ARAI to test all diesel vehicle models plying on Indian roads for emissions.
The Volkswagen Group will recall 3,23,700 lakh vehicles across its Audi, Skoda and Volkswagen brands in the country.
The Volkswagen Group India will first present a solution to Ministry of Heavy Industries and ARAI and necessary actions would be taken in a phased manner, according to the statement.
The directions came while hearing a plea by Saloni Ailawadi, a Delhi based school teacher, who had sought directions to disallow “manufacturing, assembly and sale” of vehicles manufactured by Volkswagen and its group companies until it is established that they are as per the prescribed norms in India.
The company admitted in September that most of its diesel cars in the USA had software that allowed it to pass emissions tests, even though the cars dumped 40 times the allowed levels of pollutants into the atmosphere.
“In addition, a software update will also be performed on these engines”.
Last month the auto maker was issued notice by the Indian government over the alleged charges of fudging the emission norms, as it has done in the US.
The EPA discovered that VW had manipulated its diesel engines to mislead emission tests to the effect that certain pollutants met U.S. standards.
“Volkswagen is working tirelessly on an approved remedy for the affected TDI vehicles”, Mark McNabb, chief operating officer, Volkswagen of America, said in a statement.
“Fitment of such a device may lead to excess NOx emissions on road”, Minister of State for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises G M Siddeshwara said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.
All the customers will be informed directly by the respective brands. “All technical measures will be implemented as soon as they are available”. It also ordered a fine of 14-point-one billion won. It added that the company will initiate a recall plan after approval from the authorities.
The U.S.is a relatively small market for the company.
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Volkswagen is facing challenges on three fronts: cheating software it installed in about 11 million cars worldwide; irregular carbon dioxide ratings on about 800,000 vehicles in Europe; and additional questionable emissions software in about 85,000 VW, Audi and Porsche cars with 3.0-liter diesel engines in the U.S.
