The Volkswagen Group is recalling 391,000 VW Touaregs and 409,477 Porsche Cayennes built between 2011 and 2016 because of a fault with the pedal mechanism.

In an official statement, the VW Group said the recall was necessary because “a circlip could be loose on the bearing bracket for pedals”.

A Porsche statement added: "The problem was found during internal inspections and remedied in the ongoing series. Vehicle owners will be contacted directly by the Porsche dealer responsible for them. A workshop appointment that will be free of charge will be arranged as quickly as possible and will take less than half an hour."

Both the VW Touareg and Porsche Cayenne are built on the same underpinnings, explaining why the problem is common to both cars. The VW Group says 17,219 Touaregs are affected in the UK, while Porsche has said 14,600 UK-based Cayennes are affected.

The announcement is another blow to the VW Group as it prepares to face legal and regulatory proceedings in the US regarding the emissions cheating scandal.

The VW Group is under pressure to present the California Air Resources Board with a satisfactory fix for the 600,000 cars affected by the scandal in the US, while legal proceedings are gathering pace. Some analysts have predicted that VW’s fines for the emissions cheat could top $40 billion (£28bn).