Volkswagen to recall 1.9 lakh cars in India from July; process may last for 10 months

German carmaker Volkswagen will recall 1.9 lakh cars in India from July 2016, initiating the process of calling back 3.23 lakh cars to fix the emission software. The recalling process is expected to last for 10 months.

Volkswagen 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 that comes fitted with the EA 189 engines. This recall included the cars under the brands Volkswagen, 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.

In September last year Volkswagen admitted 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 while being driven on the road. The scandal has affected 11 million cars globally.

Volkswagen India's head of marketing Kamal Basu told Press Trust of India (PTI): "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 Volkswagen complied with all the emission norms in India. The company is currently waiting for the recall approval from the regulator.

[1 lakh = 100,000 | 1 crore = 10 million | 100 crore = 1 billion]