Audi joins the diesel recall bandwagon

The Volkswagen owned premium car maker wants to voluntarily fix its high capacity diesel engines.

Just a few days after its main rival, Mercedes, issued a recall of 3 million diesel cars across Europe, Audi, has decided to recall around 8.5 lakh diesel cars globally, barring North America.

Interestingly, while the recall has been issued by Audi, it also extends to the cars from its sister companies - Volkswagen and Porsche. The German company, this time, is keeping its bread and butter 4-cylinder diesels away from this recall. Only the diesel cars which house 6-cylinder or 8-cylinder diesel motors are recalled for this fix.

The recall is very similar to Daimler's. Audi will update the ECU softwares of the recalled cars, so that emissions can be better kept under control. The company claims that it is doing this in order to make diesel technology viable for the future, which is presently constantly under threat of being banned. Diesel engined cars, as of now, contribute to a significant chunk of premium car sales in Europe.

Volkswagen’s infamous ‘Dieselgate’ scandal, of which Audi was very much a part of, has triggered massive unrest among environmental agencies and governing authorities of the west. All major European automakers - VW, FCA and Daimler, have been facing immense heat since then over speculations of them using defeat devices in their diesel vehicles.

This recall may be very significant for Audi’s parent company, Volkswagen, who has already paid USD 22 billion in settlements and fines in the US alone after its defeat devices were discovered. Voluntarily recalling and fixing high capacity diesel engines for emissions may help the brand bypass another hefty fine.

The Volkswagen Group is already in the process of selling off its superbike division - Ducati, in order to recuperate from the aforementioned losses.