VW, Audi, Skoda and Seat face recall 29 | 09 | 2015
THE VOLKSWAGEN GROUP is understood to have put in place a "comprehensive" recall and refit plan which will affect up to 11 million vehicles worldwide as it battles to address the emissions scandal.
The company's new boss Matthias Müller, addressed a meeting of top VW managers at its Wolfsburg headquarters and stated the plans had been drawn up, to make sure the cars affected by the scandal comply to the latest emissions standards.
The VW Group has now confirmed that the cars to be recalled include 5 million from VW, 2.1m from Audi, 1.2m from Skoda and 700,000 from Seat, plus 1.8m LCVs.
Owners of affected vehicles will be contacted "in the next few days" and invited to have their cars refitted in the coming months.
This latest development is the first physical sign that VW is now addressing the problems caused by its scandal: it has been under pressure to do so since news of its cheating in US emissions tests emerged last week.
It is significant now that VW Group has admitted that it is not just VW-badged cars which have been affected.
Audi has admitted that 2.1 million vehicles from its brand are affected worldwide, with 1.42 million of those being in Western Europe. The Audi models affected include the A1, A3, A4, A5, A6, TT, Q3 and Q5 ranges. More than 500,000 of the affected cars are in Germany, with a further 13,000 in the US.
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And while Skoda has revealed 1.2 million of its cars worldwide are affected by the scandal — though it hasn't detailed how many of those are inside Europe — Seat has said 700,000 of its vehicles are affected globally.
In a statement, the firm said: "The internal evaluation revealed that approximately five million Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand vehicles are affected worldwide," a statemen said. "Certain models and model years of these vehicles (such as the sixth generation Volkswagen Golf, the seventh generation Volkswagen Passat and the first generation Volkswagen Tiguan) are equipped exclusively with type EA189 diesel engines.
"As previously announced, all new Volkswagen Passenger Car brand vehicles that fulfill the EU6 norm valid throughout Europe are not affected. This therefore also includes the current Golf, Passat and Touran models."
Herbert Diess, CEO of the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand said: “We are working at full speed on a technical solution that we will present to partners, to our customers and to the public as swiftly as possible.
"Our aim is to inform our customers as quickly as possible, so that their vehicles comply fully with regulations. I assure you that Volkswagen will do everything humanly possible to win back the trust of our customers, the dealerships and the public.
"We are working intensively on remedial measures in close coordination with the certification authorities. The vehicles are and remain technically safe and roadworthy."
VW has put aside a fund of €6.5bn (approximately £4.7bn) to cover the costs of dealing with the issue, and says it will adjust its financial targets for 2015 as a result.
Volkswagen and Audi cars in the USA are fitted with a ‘defeat device’ that allows the vehicle to perform more efficiently in the official emissions test than in real-world driving conditions.
The device is embedded in the software code that runs the ECU. It detects when the car is being tested and turns on full emissions controls, but the effectiveness of the device is reduced in normal conditions.
Reports have since surfaced that Volkswagen was warned about the legality of its software as far back as 2007.
Since the scandal broke last week, about 30 billion euros has been wiped off the value of the company.
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Jim McGill