VW delays recall of vehicles to remove ‘defeat devices’

VW delays recall of vehicles to remove ‘defeat devices’

VW said it has delayed the recall of vehicles to remove devices designed to trick pollution tests.

The Dollar Business Bureau

After failing to get the required approval from the regulatory body to take out the device designed to trick pollution tests, German car manufacturer Volkswagen (VW) on Monday said the company was delaying the recall of millions of vehicles all over the world.

According to reports, the company had planned to recall the brand’s Passats model in early March. However, the vehicles are still in the checking process at the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA). The Authority is not yet fully satisfied with few measures and needs some more information. But the car maker was hoping that the approval for recalling the vehicles would come in a few weeks.

The company has still not been able to obtain an approval for recalling VW Golf, its best-selling model.

Volkswagen, Europe's largest car company, was forced to recall cars from all over the world after the company confessed that up to 11 million diesel vehicles had been installed with ‘defeat devices’, intended to cheat worldwide emissions standards, including Europe and Britain. 

In Europe itself, about 8.5 million vehicles need to be recalled.

To meet the huge cost of repairs, for lawsuits and regulatory penalties, VW has set aside $18.2 billion (16.2 billion euros), making it incur heavy losses of 1.582 billion euros in 2015 – the first loss for the company since 1993.

The crisis, last year, led the company’s head Martin Winterkorn to quit, and Matthias Müller, former chairman of Porsche had taken over as the new company chief executive.

The Dollar Business Bureau - Apr 26, 2016 12:00 IST