Germany orders recall of 60,000 Audis over emissions

TIL Desk/Business/Frankfurt Am Main(Germany)/ Germany this week ordered the recall of tens of thousands of cars produced by Volkswagen subsidiary Audi over “illegal software” designed to conceal levels of harmful emissions, the KBA vehicle licensing authority said today.  “We have ordered that the illegal ‘defeat devices’ uncovered should be removed and the vehicles refitted according to the regulations,” a KBA spokesman told.

“Defeat devices” refer to physical or software systems designed to reduce polluting emissions during regulatory tests, while allowing them to rise in real driving conditions. Around 60,000 Audi A6 and A7 diesel cars in the European Union are affected by the recall, some 33,000 of them in Germany, the firm said.

In early May, Audi said it had stopped delivering some A6 and A7 versions to customers after finding “irregularities” in their onboard software, adding that it was working on a fix. At the same time, the KBA said it was launching an inquiry into “suspicions of manipulation” in the cars. News magazine Der Spiegel reported that the suspect software related to AdBlue, a fluid injected into the exhaust system to neutralise harmful nitrogen oxides (NOx).