German car-making company Volkswagen is all set to recall 1.9 lakh cars in India from July 2016, launching the process of calling back 3.23 lakh cars to fix the emission software. The entire process is expected to last 10 months.
VW maintained that the recall is voluntary and the owners of the affected models will be contacted by the company. The company had announced a recall of 3.23 lakh cars in India in December last year. It includes cars under the brands Audi and Skoda. The recall included 1.9 lakh cars from Volkswagen, 88,700 cars from Skoda and 36,500 cars from Audi sold in India, which were manufactured from 2008 to December 2015. The engines -- 1.2-litre, 1.5-litre, 1.6-litre and 2.0-litre – power many popular models such as the VW Polo, Vento, Jetta, Passat, Skoda Fabia, Rapid, Yeti, Superb, Laura, Octavia and Audi A3, Q3, A4, Q5. While the recall process of Volkswagen would begin from July, other car-makers Audi and Skoda are also expected to begin the process around the same time.
Volkwagen had admitted in September last year that it fitted a "cheat device" in some of its diesel models sold in the United States to pass government emissions tests, but in reality, the models emit much higher amounts of nitrogen oxide when driven. The scandal affected 11 million cars globally. Volkswagen India's head of marketing Kamal Basu said, "Since recall was done in the US to fix the emission software, the company decided to do also the same in India to keep updated with the changes made outside." He also added that the company complied with all the emission norms in India.