Emmisions cheating scandal: Volkswagen to recall 5 million diesel vehicles

Berlin: The German automaker Volkswagen announced that it would recall up to 5 million diesel vehicles that are involved in an emissions cheating scandal.

According to a statement issued by the company, customers of the affected vehicles will be informed in weeks and months and the emissions characteristics will be corrected.

The company said the technical solutions and measures would be presented to responsible authorities in October, Xinhua news agency reported on Tuesday. 

A service procedure is required for some five million vehicles from the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand out of a total of 11 Group vehicles worldwide, a statement said.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) earlier this month found the software on Volkswagen diesel cars showed false emission data.

The software installed by Volkswagen in its cars called "defeat device" can turn on full emission controls only when the car is undergoing emission tests so as to meet the legal emission standards.

Under normal driving conditions, the cars with "defeat device" software can emit nitrogen oxides at up to 40 times the standard.