First Volkswagen dieselgate fix approved in the EU

In a simple statement the KBA (Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt) announced that it had approved the fixes planned by Volkswagen for Amarok utes fitted with the 2.0-litre EA189 turbo-diesel engine. The company can now begin recalling this vehicle across the EU and upgrading it to be compliant with emissions regulations.

A Volkswagen spokesman told Automotive News Europe: "The notice [from the KBA] was sent to us, we did not file an appeal, and as a result the notice from the KBA became binding and therefore valid for all of Europe. That does not mean that we arrived at the same legal interpretation."

The spokesman told the industry publication that the company believes that the EU law on this particular matter is ambiguous.

In November 2015 Volkswagen detailed proposed fixes for its 1.6 and 2.0-litre EA189 turbo-diesel engines in the EU market.

A simple software upgrade, which takes around 30 minutes to install, was proposed for models equipped with the 2.0-litre version of the engine. A similar fix has since been flagged for the 1.2-litre EA189 engine.

For cars with the 1.6-litre EA189 diesel engine, the company plans to install a software upgrade, as well as a flow transformer upstream of the air mass sensor, which feeds data into the engine measurement unit. This fix is estimated to take around one hour to implement.

It's understood that Volkswagen is still in discussions with the United States' Environmental Protection Agency about fixes that will be applied to the roughly half-a-million affected EA189 vehicles in that country.

Last year Volkswagen, Audi and Skoda confirmed that vehicles sold in Australia are affected by the scandal and will be recalled in time.

Karl Gehling, general manager of communications at Volkswagen Australia, has informed CarAdvice that it is "working with the DIRD [Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development] in Australia and plan to commence the recall as soon as possible".

More: All the latest dieselgate news.