Volkswagen suspends sale of select Vento model; recalls 3,877 units

New Delhi: Beleaguered German auto maker Volkswagen (VW) is halting sales of a select version of its mid-sized sedan Vento in India with immediate effect due to inconsistent Carbon Monoxide (CO) emissions and is recalling 3,877 units of the car.

Emissions of Vento equipped with 1.5-litre diesel engine and manual gearbox were observed to be sometimes exceeding the threshold limits during the Conformity of Production tests done by the ARAI, Volkswagen India said in a statement.

"At the same time, Volkswagen India is temporarily holding back sales of the manual gearbox version of the Volkswagen Vento with 1.5-litre diesel engine with immediate effect," it added.

The company is analysing the issue and will propose technical measures to ARAI to solve this inconsistency at the earliest, it said.

Once approved and confirmed by the competent authorities, Volkswagen India will implement the measures and resume the production and sales of the vehicle, it added.

"The same technical measures will also be implemented in the impacted vehicles that are already with customers," it said.

Volkswagen India said the problem impacts only the manual gearbox version of Vento with 1.5-litre diesel engine and is not connected to the global NOx emissions topic.

"All other diesel models and variants of Volkswagen India, including Vento 1.5 TDI with automatic transmission (DSG) and all diesel Polo cars, conform to the norms and will continue to be produced and sold in India," it said.

Earlier this year the company had apologised over emission scandal in India but insisted its cars followed the country's norms.

This is, however, contradicted by the government with Heavy Industries Minister Anant Geete claiming that "on-road tests have revealed emission in excess of nine times" in VW cars in India although they passed ARAI tests at factories.

Last year the company had announced a voluntary recall of three lakh vehicles in India in the wake of the emission cheating scandal that hit the company globally.

The recall covered cars sold from 2008 till end of November 2015 in India. It encompasses cars from the Volkswagen, Audi and Skoda model range which carry the software that requires to be updated.

VW had admitted use of defeat device in 11 million diesel engine cars sold in the US, Europe and other global markets that allowed manipulation of emissions tests by changing the performance of the vehicles to improve results.

As per latest reports, the company could face fine of up to USD 90 billion in the US following a lawsuit filed by the US Department of Justice.