Volkswagen is set recall 11 million of its vehicles equipped with emissions cheating software.
Of those 11 million vehicles, 5 million are from Volkswagen itself while the remaining are from other Volkswagen Group companies Audi (2.1 million), Skoda (1.2 million) and a further 1.8 million light commercial vehicles.
While a recall hasn’t been officially announced, the company’s new chief executive Matthias Muller has revealed that in the coming days, it will contact customers with affected diesel vehicles to have their cars refitted. Some suggest that the worldwide recall could cost the German conglomerate in excess of 6.5 billion euros.
While speaking with top Volkswagen managers on Monday, Muller said “We are facing a long trudge and a lot of hard work. We will only be able to make progress in steps and there will be setbacks.”
On Friday 18 September, the Environmental Protection Agency in the United States discovered that Volkswagen had installed software on its cars to cheat EPA emissions testing. They did so by installing software which automatically switched the engine into a cleaner mode when being tested. It is reported that when running normally, the cars emit up to 40 times the pollution limit.
