Volkswagen announced that its European recall campaign is progressing normally, with the first 4,300 affected diesel cars already fixed.
The first model to be recalled was the Amarok pickup truck with the 2.0-litre diesel engine, of which VW has already fixed half of the affected models in its home market.
Next up are the Passat sedan and wagon, which are expected to be recalled in late March. After the fix is applied, all the cars will be Euro-5 compliant.
The European affected diesel models are 5.2 million vehicles equipped with the 2.0-litre engine, 3 million with the 1.6-litre and around 300,000 with the 1.2-litre engine.
Over the next few months, the recall will be extended to models equipped with the 1.2-litre and 1.6-litre diesel engines. Although the giant recall of almost 8.5 million vehicles in Europe has already started, the automaker is still negotiating with US regulators for the recall of almost 600,000 vehicles in that market.
Every proposal has so far has been rejected, leaving the time frame for the US recall an unsolved problem. VW is facing billions of dollars in regulatory fines and lawsuit costs on top of the expenses associated with fixing the manipulated US diesel models.
In Europe, the three affected diesel engines require a software fix that takes less than half an hour per car to be applied. The 1.6-litre engines require an additional part fitted to the intake which is supposed to make the engine’s filters work better, with the repair time taking less than 45 minutes.
Story References: Bloomberg
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