Volkswagen said today it's recalling 8.5 million diesel vehicles in Europe, including 2.4 million in Germany.
The cars are fitted with software that makes their engines produce far fewer toxic emissions in official tests than on the road.
"Remedial action on the vehicles will begin in January 2016 -- at no cost to our customers," Volkswagen said in a statement. It said it was working as fast as it could to develop a technical fix, which could involve changes to software as well as hardware, depending on the model."
"These are currently being developed for each affected series and each affected model year. All measures will first be presented to the responsible authorities. Volkswagen will subsequently inform the owners of these vehicles over the next weeks and months," the company said.
Nearly 500,000 vehicles in the U.S., including Chattanooga-made Passat sedans, are affected by the company's emission scandal, but no recall has been set.