New Delhi: Volkswagen India Pvt. Ltd on Friday said that it will recall 3,877 Vento cars fitted with a 1.5-litre diesel engine and manual gearbox due to inconsistent carbon monoxide (CO) emissions.

Such inconsistencies were observed during the conformity of production (COP) tests done by the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI).

At the same time, Volkswagen India is temporarily suspending sales of the Volkswagen Vento variant with immediate effect, the company said.

“Volkswagen India is analysing the issue and will propose technical measures to ARAI to solve this inconsistency at the earliest. Once approved and confirmed by the competent authorities, Volkswagen India will implement the measures and resume the production and sales of the relevant vehicle," the company said.

ARAI is a collaborative association between the automotive industry and the ministry of heavy industries and public enterprises.

“The same technical measures will also be implemented in the impacted vehicles that are already with customers," Volkswagen India added.

The company clarified that this problem affects only the manual gearbox version of Vento fitted with a 1.5-litre diesel engine and is not connected to the global nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions issue.

“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.

Separately, in response to a Mint questionnaire, a Volkswagen India spokesperson said that the production of Skoda Rapid with 1.5-litre diesel engine and manual gearbox has also been stopped temporarily.

In December, Mumbai-headquartered Volkswagen Group India said that approximately 323,700 cars of Volkswagen, Skoda and Audi in India are equipped with the EA 189 family of diesel engines. Globally, cars powered by these engines have the so-called defeat device, a software that can detect when a car is being tested and manipulate performance to improve emission results.

A government probe found the company to be using diesel engines equipped with a defeat device which help cheat emission tests, as it had done in the US and other global markets. But, the Indian unit of the German automaker has denied using defeat devices in models sold in the country.

As per the records of Volkswagen Group India, from 2008 to November-end, approximately 198,500 cars from Volkswagen, 88,700 cars from Skoda and 36,500 cars from Audi sold in India were equipped with the EA 189 engines.

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