Audi Australia ‘dieselgate’ recall commences

Audi Australia says it will continue pursuing software fixes for all vehicles affected by the Volkswagen Group’s diesel emissions saga after announcing the first of 16,085 recalls this week.

The German luxury marque has been engulfed in the ‘dieselgate’ scandal as part of its Volkswagen Group parent ownership, an arrangement that sees certain Audis share their engines and platform architectures with Volkswagens and Skodas.

This week Audi announced it was recalling more than 6000 cars locally to remove software designed to cheat emissions testing. The notice encompasses certain A4, A5, A6, Q3 and Q5 models fitted with the EA189 engine, and coincides with a separate Volkswagen recall of 61,000 Australian vehicles.

The recall follows extensive deliberation between the Volkswagen Group and the federal government to have the fixes approved.

It is believed the recall encompasses a software upgrade that takes less than an hour to complete, and is claimed to bear no impact on vehicle performance or fuel economy.

Speaking with motoring.com.au, Audi Australia corporate communications manager Anna Burgdorf said the local arm was actively pursuing fixes for its outstanding circa-10,000 vehicles embroiled in the ‘dieselgate’ saga. They are believed to include A1, A3 and TT models that share the same engine.

“We’ve got a bit over 6000 cars that can be fixed now -- we have the software updates for those,” Burgdorf said.

“The most important thing for us is that we provide customers the opportunity to have their car repaired free of charge.

“We’re obviously aware that it has caused levels of frustration for some of our customers and the most important thing is that we provide that solution as quickly as we’ve been able to.

“The solutions are coming in waves or clusters, and as soon as the solutions are available we then work with government to have them approved and actively contact those customers.”

Audi has been heavily implicated in the diesel cheating scandal, with several executives coming under the spotlight and the marque recently cutting its highly successful and diesel-savvy Le Mans racing program to instead channel resources into the Formula E electric racing category.

Owners of affected vehicles should receive a letter from Audi Australia informing them of the next steps in the recall process.