German authorities to order recall of 2.4 mn Volkswagen vehicles

Frankfurt: German transport authorities will order auto giant Volkswagen to recall 2.4 million diesel vehicles in Germany equipped with pollution-cheating software, a spokesman said Thursday.

"We are going to issue the order," the spokesman for the KBA or Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt said, adding that "2.4 million vehicles are concerned" and that the authority would monitor the recall.

Last week, VW put forward a plan to begin recalling the vehicles from January 2016.

Neither the KBA nor the German transport ministry which oversees it had commented so far on VW's roadmap to solve the scandal, which has plunged the world's biggest carmaker in terms of sales into its deepest-ever crisis.

Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt is scheduled to give a statement to the press in Berlin later on Thursday.

The mass-circulation daily Bild reported meanwhile that the German authorities were running out of patience with VW.

VW was forced to admit last month that it had fitted 11 million diesel cars worldwide with devices aimed at cheating pollution tests.

The affair rocked the automobile sector around the world and cost VW's chief executive Martin Winterkorn his job.

His successor, Matthias Mueller, proposed last week that VW start recalling the cars in January but said the programme would take all year.