Volkswagen India produced 20,030 units of Polo between April and August this year. Volkswagen India produced 20,030 units of Polo between April and August this year.

German auto major Volkswagen on Wednesday asked its dealers in India to temporarily stop selling its premium hatchback Polo, citing a technical issue. The company, however, said the measure is not related to the emissions scandal that has hit the firm in the US and in Europe. Both the petrol as well as the diesel variants of the hatchback has been taken off the market for now.

A spokesperson at Volkswagen Passenger Cars India, said, “Volkswagen India has confirmed a temporary hold on deliveries of its carline Polo due to a technical reason which is currently under evaluation.” The technical issue and the ongoing evaluation concern a limited number of cars out of a specific production period.

The spokesperson clarified that the evaluation underway in India is not related to the emissions controversy the company is currently facing in the United States. He said, “Volkswagen would like to clarify that the temporary hold on deliveries is not related to the ongoing EA 189 diesel engine topic.”

Earlier in the day, in a letter, signed by Ashish Gupta, head of after sales operations, Volkswagen Passenger Cars and Pankaj Sharma, head of sales operations, sent to the ‘dealer partners’, the company asked them “not to physically deliver any Polo vehicle (all variants) with immediate effect till further notice from VW.”

VW India produced 20,030 units of Polo between April and August this year. The company sold 13,827 units in the domestic market and exported another 6,052 units. In the year to march end 2015, the company sold 45,000 units in India, nearly two-thirds of which were Polo.

Earlier this week, the company had said that it is still evaluating the impact of the emissions scandal on Indian operations, and a recall of vehicles will depend on findings of the ongoing investigations.

The company is in communication with testing agency Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI), which has been asked by the government to probe if Volkswagen manipulated emissions tests in India as it did in the US and Europe.

ARAI has asked Volkswagen India to present the details of all the cars sold in India with the EA189 engine and the firm is in communication with them on the matter.

The EA189 diesel engines were fitted with software that enabled manipulation of emissions tests. VW has already announced that globally around 11 million vehicles have been affected. The company faces fine of over $18 billion in the US over the issue.

Last week, ARAI was given time till the end of this month to file a report on the probe by the Ministry of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises.

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