Germany orders recall of 8.5M VWs

BERLIN — German authorities on Thursday ordered a recall of all Volkswagen cars fitted with emissions test-cheating software, a decision that will affect 8.5 million VW diesel vehicles across the 28-nation European Union.

The Federal Motor Transport Authority announced that the recall would affect 2.4 million vehicles in Germany. Under EU rules, cars that are cleared in one country are automatically approved across the bloc, so the repeal also affects Volkswagen vehicles elsewhere in the union.

Austrian authorities have already said some 363,000 VW cars there are affected by the recall.

Volkswagen said in a statement that it would approach customers, who can already enter their car’s serial number on a special website to find out whether it is affected. Apart from the company’s VW brand, Audi, SEAT and Skoda cars can also be checked.

The fix will be free for customers, it said.

Also Thursday, U.S. environmental regulators said they expect to get a proposed fix from Volkswagen next week on about 90,000 of the 482,000 cars with the cheating software in the U.S. The fix must be tested before the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will seek a recall. It’s unclear when the remaining U.S. cars would be fixed.

In Germany, Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt said Volkswagen would have to present replacement software for certain cars that have a 2.0-liter diesel engine this month and begin fitting vehicles with them next year. Dobrindt, who refrained from publicly criticizing Volkswagen, indicated that the recall may last through 2016 because vehicles fitted with smaller 1.6-liter diesel engines will require physical adjustments rather than just a software update.