On continued sales of vehicles powered by the EA189 engines, VW said: “Based on the current situation, Volkswagen Group India will continue the production and sales of the cars with EA 189 engines in India”.
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Volkswagen Group India on Thursday said that it does not believe that its cars are equipped with emission “defeat device” and results of evaluations show they are not violating emission norms in the country.
To come to a common conclusion on this topic, further meetings with the road transport and highways ministry will take place, the company added. VW is the second global auto brand to have been publicly reprimanded by the government after an official committee accused United States company General Motors of committing a “corporate fraud” over the Chevrolet Tavera emissions issue in October 2013. 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.
Volkswagen sold 26,479 cars in India in first third quarters of the year, having a 1.7 percent market share and being on the 8th spot in the country, according to data from the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers.
Volkswagen continues to face issues involving emission tests, as it is now recalling about 323,700 cars in India while the government investigates diesel vehicles made with emission cheating software. The 1.5-litre and 1.6-litre diesel engines will go through certain hardware tweaks.
The company has already admitted that 11 million diesel engine cars worldwide were fitted with the software that helped in manipulating emission tests.
“Actually, we have never said that “defeat device” was found. ARAI road test found major variation in the emission level which we believed was an “indication” that they might have used defeat device”, said Ambuj Sharma, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Heavy Industries. All necessary technical measures will be implemented at no cost to the customers. “The measure for the 1.2-litre engines will be announced shortly”, the company said.
The government is also planning to ask Volkswagen to stop sales of any vehicles in the country till the recall process is complete.
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