The after affects of Volkswagen’s recall of 3.23 lakhs cars in India forced government to inspect all the diesel cars in the country. NGT (national green tribunal) recently issued a show cause notice to VW and Ministry of environment and heavy industry over the diesel gate scam and asked them to submit a report before 23rd December 2015. NGT also wants ban on sales and manufacturing of VW cars in India.
In the wake of ARAI and NGT show cause notices, now Indian government turns its attention towards one of the biggest automobile scandals in India. The dieselgate scandal did a great deal of damage to VW all around the world especially in US and Europe where it all busted out first.
In the Tests by conducted by ARAI (Automotive Research Association of India) revealed that the EA 189 diesel engines were fitted with a defect device or cheating device that helped to maneuver the level of nitrogen oxide (NOx) emission. The EA 189 engines include 1.2l, 1.5l, 1.6l and 2.0 litre engines that powers in VW’s sub brands like Skoda and Audi. The recall will be applied on the vehicles that were produced between 2008 to November 2015, which includes 198,500 units of Volkswagen, 88,700 units of Skoda and 36,500 units of Audi.
A government official said that VW has accepted the emission norm violations and has agreed to recall all the faulty vehicles. The process of recall will begin by ARAI and will be completed by six to eight months. Furthermore, government has decided to test all diesel vehicles of various manufactures to check for infringement of emission norms in India. This is not first emission scandal in India; in 2013 General motors’ recalled nearly 1.14 lakh Tavera models over flouted emission norms.
This emission scandal has not only dented the VW’s image but also leads to a question on the genuineness & procedure of testing by the competent and responsible agencies as well.
