Germany orders recall of 2.4mn VW cars

German Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt said on Thursday that the country’s KBA automotive watchdog had ordered Volkswagen to start a mandatory recall of 2.4 million vehicles at the beginning of next year.

The Bild newspaper said the KBA had rejected the idea owners could voluntarily bring in their vehicles.

The KBA has given Volkswagen until the end of the month to come up with a plan for a software fix needed for 2.0 litre vehicles affected by the recall, Dobrindt said.

The carmaker has until the end of November to come up with a technical solution for 1.6 and 1.2 litre vehicles, he added.

Volkswagen has said it aims to complete a refit of vehicles affected worldwide by the end of 2016, with some requiring more complex and expensive changes to hardware.

Germany had previously said 2.8 million Volkswagen vehicles were affected by the scandal in the country.

Dobrindt said only 2.4 million needed to be recalled because the other 400,000 were no longer on the roads. He reiterated the affected vehicles were safe and could be driven as normal.

Dobrindt said the German government still did not know who was responsible for creating and installing the cheat software, or when and how the decisions were made.

Nearly four weeks after it publicly admitted to rigging US diesel emissions tests, Volkswagen is under pressure to identify those responsible and fix affected vehicles.

It has been criticized by politicians, investors and consumers for the time it is taking to produce answers.