The Volkswagen 'diesel gate' crisis seems to be going from bad to worse as Switzerland banned the sale of diesel cars made by the German manufacture fitted with 'cheating' devices.

Thomas Rohrbach, spokesman for the Swiss federal office of roadways, announced that the ban was being implemented on all cars with diesel engines in the "euro 5" emissions category, reports The Telegraph. The ban does not apply to cars now in production with "euro 6" engines.

According to the calculations, there are around 1,80,000 Volkswagen group vehicles -Audi, Seat, Skoda and VW- already sold in Switzerland that could contain the software, which shows reduced pollution levels during testing. Sales of new vehicles of this type would be banned, but the prohibition wouldn't extend to the cars already on the roads.

"These cars, which were built between 2009 and 2014, could be subject to a recall if they are found to contain the manipulation software" said Thomas Rohrbach. The ban potentially could affect VW group vehicles that have 1.2-litre, 1.6-litre and 2.0-litre diesel engines.

The latest development for Switzerland is another blow for Volkswagen that admitted to the US regulators that it programmed its cars to detect when they were being tested and alter the running of their diesel engines to conceal their true emissions.

Volkswagen is going through the biggest business crisis it has experienced in its 78-year-long history. On Friday (25 September) the automaker appointed Matthias Muller as its new CEO after his predecessor, Martin Winterkorn resigned on Wednesday (23 September) in the wake of the scandal.

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