FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Germany's transport minister says the government is ordering automaker Daimler to immediately recall 238,000 vehicles equipped with software that turns off emissions controls under certain conditions.

Minister Andreas Scheuer made the statement Monday after a meeting with Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche. Scheuer said that Daimler was willing to work "with cooperative transparency" with the government and "at maximum speed."

Scheuer said the recall was ordered after "intensive and hours-long negotiations" with Daimler.

The affected vehicles include the Mercedes-Benz Vito delivery van and the Mercedes GLC 220d and C220d.

Europe-wide some 774,000 vehicles are affected, the ministry said. The ministry statement did not say whether those cars outside of Germany would be recalled.

Diesels have been under heavy scrutiny since U.S. authorities caught Volkswagen using illegal engine control software that turned off diesel emission controls in everyday driving. Subsequent investigations showed that other automakers had exploited European regulatory loopholes that allowed emissions controls to be relaxed at certain temperatures to avoid engine damage.

Daimler said in a statement only that it "confirmed the recall" and added that "open legal questions will be clarified in appeal proceedings." The company had earlier said that it contested the legal basis for the finding that the Vito's engine controls were disallowed.

Daimler has already announced a voluntary recall of some 3 million diesels to install a software fix intended to reduce emissions.

Diesels are additionally under more pressure as German cities with excessive pollution levels contemplate limited diesel bans to come into compliance, under pressure from environmental groups. The city of Hamburg introduced a ban on older diesels on two streets suffering from excessive pollution levels on May 31.

The Stuttgart-based automaker has said the U.S. Department of Justice has inquired about the company's emission certification processes, and that German prosecutors in Stuttgart are investigating Daimler employees on suspicion of fraud and criminal advertising. The company says it is cooperating with authorities.</s>Image copyright Getty Images

Car giant Volkswagen has been fined €1bn (£880m) by German prosecutors over its diesel emissions scandal.

The Braunschweig public prosecutor found VW had sold more than 10 million cars between mid-2007 and 2015 that had emissions-test-cheating software installed.

The car firm said it did not plan to appeal against the fine.

VW said it had admitted "its responsibility for the diesel crisis".

The fine is one of the highest ever imposed by German authorities against a company.

VW chief executive Herbert Diess said by accepting the fine "Volkswagen takes responsibility for the diesel crisis,"

"Further steps are necessary to restore trust in the company and the auto industry," he added.

The fine in Germany follows a US plea agreement last year, when VW agreed to pay a criminal fine of $4.3bn to resolve criminal and civil penalties.

Analysis: By Theo Leggett, business correspondent

How serious is this for Volkswagen?

Well, it's a big fine - €1bn is not a small sum. But it pales into insignificance compared with the fines and compensation the group has had to pay out in the US - which add up to well over €20bn

If this puts an end to criminal proceedings in Europe, VW may well think it's a relatively small price to pay. The company has consistently denied that the software fitted to its cars was actually illegal under European law. Nevertheless, it will welcome the disappearance of that particular legal threat.

VW does still face a number of civil lawsuits, brought by disgruntled car owners and shareholders. It's not clear yet what impact VW's admission of "responsibility for the diesel crisis" will have on those proceedings.

But for the moment, it's possible to imagine suits in Wolfsburg breathing a heavy sigh of relief. It could have been worse.

The total cost of the scandal has been much higher. VW has set aside $30bn to pay for its US bill, which includes fixing cars, buying back cars, clean air fines, penalties and compensation.

The Volkswagen scandal erupted in September 2015, when the company admitted that nearly 600,000 cars sold in the US were fitted with "defeat devices" designed to circumvent emissions tests.

Since then it has emerged that VW installed emissions-cheating software in nearly 11 million vehicles worldwide.</s>FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Germany's transport minister says the government is ordering automaker Daimler to immediately recall 238,000 vehicles equipped with software that turns off emissions controls under certain conditions.

Minister Andreas Scheuer made the statement Monday after a meeting with Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche. Scheuer said that Daimler was willing to work "with cooperative transparency" with the government and "at maximum speed."

Scheuer said the recall was ordered after "intensive and hours-long negotiations" with Daimler.

The affected vehicles include the Mercedes-Benz Vito delivery van and the Mercedes GLC 220d and C220d.

Europe-wide some 774,000 vehicles are affected, the ministry said. The ministry statement did not say whether those cars outside of Germany would be recalled.

Diesels have been under heavy scrutiny since U.S. authorities caught Volkswagen using illegal engine control software that turned off diesel emission controls in everyday driving. Subsequent investigations showed that other automakers had exploited European regulatory loopholes that allowed emissions controls to be relaxed at certain temperatures to avoid engine damage.

Daimler said in a statement only that it "confirmed the recall" and added that "open legal questions will be clarified in appeal proceedings." The company had earlier said that it contested the legal basis for the finding that the Vito's engine controls were disallowed.

Daimler has already announced a voluntary recall of some 3 million diesels to install a software fix intended to reduce emissions.

Diesels are additionally under more pressure as German cities with excessive pollution levels contemplate limited diesel bans to come into compliance, under pressure from environmental groups. The city of Hamburg introduced a ban on older diesels on two streets suffering from excessive pollution levels on May 31.

The Stuttgart-based automaker has said the U.S. Department of Justice has inquired about the company's emission certification processes, and that German prosecutors in Stuttgart are investigating Daimler employees on suspicion of fraud and criminal advertising. The company says it is cooperating with authorities.</s>FRANKFURT: Germany ordered Monday the recall of some 774,000 vehicles from Mercedes-Benz maker Daimler across Europe, citing illegal "defeat devices" designed to conceal high levels of harmful emissions from regulators´ tests.

"The federal government will order an immediate official recall because of illegal defeat devices," Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer said in a statement.

The move mostly affects Vito vans and diesel-powered versions of GLC 4x4s and C-class sedans, Scheuer added.

Daimler boss Dieter Zetsche was summoned Monday for crunch talks with Scheuer over emissions irregularities in the firm´s vehicles.

"Daimler says the applications in the motor control software the federal government has found fault with will be removed at the greatest possible speed and in cooperative transparency with the authorities," Scheuer said.

A Daimler spokesman confirmed the recall to AFP, adding "legal questions will be cleared up in the appeal procedure" against the transport ministry decision.

So-called defeat devices were at the heart of Volkswagen´s "dieselgate" scandal, in which the world´s largest carmaker admitted in September 2015 to installing them in 11 million vehicles worldwide.

Vehicles kept to legal emissions limits for harmful substances like nitrogen oxides (NOx) during lab tests, only to exceed them as much as 40 times in on-road driving.

The scandal has so far cost the world´s largest carmaker over 25 billion euros ($29.5 billion) in fines, buybacks and compensation, and senior executives are under investigation over their suspected roles in the cheating.

In the years since 2015, other German carmakers have also been forced to recall vehicles to fix manipulated software, although none has so far admitted to mass cheating as Volkswagen did.

Recent weeks have seen Germany´s KBA vehicle licensing authority hit Volkswagen subsidiaries Audi and Porsche with mass recall orders over their engine control software, as well as a smaller batch of cars from rival BMW.

Prosecutors raided Munich-based BMW in March, saying their investigation was "only just getting started" after gathering evidence, and announced on Monday they suspect Audi chief executive Rupert Stadler of fraud.

"The whole European car industry is still stuck in this diesel quagmire, and everything that´s been done so far has done nothing to set it free," auto industry expert Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer of the CAR research centre told AFP -- pointing also to Italian and French automakers.

The German government should approve hardware, rather than software alterations to manipulated vehicles to produce "an honest solution" to excessive emissions, Dudenhoeffer charged.

Otherwise, "car firms will continue to stumble into the future and watch as their reputations are destroyed," he warned.

"The pressure is rising, but it´s of course up to the politicians" how much progress is made, Dudenhoeffer said.

For their part, German firms have announced dozens of new electric and hybrid models for the coming years in a bid to bring down emissions of both greenhouse gas CO2 -- the original reason they turned to diesel -- and of harmful NOx.

But they continue to bet on the internal combustion engine and diesel into the future, with Daimler and component maker Bosch recently touting upgraded diesel technology they say solves the motors´ exhaust issues.</s>Volkswagen was fined one billion euros ($1.6 billion) over diesel emissions cheating in what amounts to one of the highest ever fines imposed by German authorities against a company, public prosecutors said on Wednesday.

The German fine follows a US plea agreement from January 2017 when VW agreed to pay $US4.3 billion ($5.7 billion) to resolve criminal and civil penalties for installing illegal software in diesel engines to cheat strict US anti-pollution tests.

"Following thorough examination, Volkswagen AG accepted the fine and it will not lodge an appeal against it. Volkswagen AG, by doing so, admits its responsibility for the diesel crisis and considers this as a further major step towards the latter being overcome," it said in a statement.

The fine is the latest blow to Germany's auto industry which cannot seem to catch a break from the diesel emissions crisis. Germany's government on Monday ordered Daimler to recall nearly 240,000 cars fitted with illicit emissions-control devices, part of a total of 774,000 models affected in Europe as a whole.

Munich prosecutors this week widened an emissions cheating probe into VW's luxury brand Audi to include Chief Executive Rupert Stadler among the suspects accused of fraud and false advertising.</s>Car maker Volkswagen has said it is being fined one billion euro (£880 million) by German authorities in connection with the diesel emissions scandal.

Volkswagen said it would accept the fine imposed by prosecutors in the German city of Braunschweig.

Prosecutors concluded that Volkswagen failed to properly oversee the activity of its engine development department, resulting in some 10.7 million diesel vehicles with illegal emissions-controlling software being sold worldwide.</s>BERLIN: Volkswagen was fined one billion euros (US$1.18 billion) over diesel emissions cheating in what amounts to one of the highest ever fines imposed by German authorities against a company, public prosecutors said on Wednesday.

The German fine follows a U.S. plea agreement from January 2017 when VW agreed to pay US$4.3 billion to resolve criminal and civil penalties for installing illegal software in diesel engines to cheat strict U.S. anti-pollution tests.

"Following thorough examination, Volkswagen AG accepted the fine and it will not lodge an appeal against it. Volkswagen AG, by doing so, admits its responsibility for the diesel crisis and considers this as a further major step towards the latter being overcome," it said in a statement.

The fine is the latest blow to Germany's auto industry which cannot seem to catch a break from the diesel emissions crisis. Germany's government on Monday ordered Daimler to recall nearly 240,000 cars fitted with illicit emissions-control devices, part of a total of 774,000 models affected in Europe as a whole.

Munich prosecutors this week widened an emissions cheating probe into VW's luxury brand Audi to include Chief Executive Rupert Stadler among the suspects accused of fraud and false advertising.

The prosecutor's office in Braunschweig imposed the fine against VW on Wednesday for organisational deficiencies which failed to prevent "impermissible software functions" from being installed in 10.7 million cars between 2007 and 2015.

The fine did not address any civil claims or claims by vehicle owners, the prosecutor's office said in its statement. It does, however, end regulatory offence proceedings against Volkswagen, which the Wolfsburg-based carmaker said would help to settle further administrative proceedings against VW in Europe.

VW is far from being out of the woods. The carmaker's new chief executive, Herbert Diess, and the group's chairman Hans Dieter Poetsch are still being investigated by Braunschweig prosecutors for suspected market manipulation.

Poetsch, also CEO of VW's majority stakeholder Porsche SE , is separately being investigated by prosecutors in Stuttgart over the same suspicions.

"Courts will now hardly be able to dismiss consumer complaints," said Jan-Eike Andresen of platform MyRight which has mandated U.S. law firm Hausfeld to pursue civil claims.

Hausfeld represents aggrieved VW owners and shareholders on both sides of the Atlantic.

Wednesday's fine was not included in the 25.8 billion euros of provisions that VW set aside for the diesel cheating scandal, and would hit earnings, analysts at Evercore ISI said.

Volkswagen said it held a management board meeting to discuss the latest development in its emissions crisis with members of the supervisory board also being informed.

Further steps would be taken to overcome the diesel cheating scandal and to restore trust in the company, Diess said.

Finance chief Frank Witter will update investors on Aug. 1 on the implications of the fine for the carmaker's cash position, alongside its second-quarter results, VW said.

"Paying out 1 billion euros is extremely painful but in the broader context it isn't a material number," Evercore ISI analyst Arndt Ellinghorst said, citing VW's 24.3 billion-euro net cash position after the first quarter.</s>Automaker Volkswagen said Wednesday that it's being fined 1 billion euros ($1.18 billion) by German authorities in connection with the diesel emissions scandal.

Volkswagen said in a statement it would accept the fine imposed by prosecutors in the German city of Braunschweig.

Prosecutors concluded that Volkswagen failed to properly oversee the activity of its engine development department, resulting in some 10.7 million diesel vehicles with illegal emissions-controlling software being sold worldwide.

The scandal, which came to light in the United States in 2015, has already cost the German automaker $20 billion in fines and civil settlements in the U.S.

Volkswagen said it hoped that paying the German fine would have "positive effects on other official proceedings being conducted in Europe against Volkswagen" and its subsidiaries.

Volkswagen admitted in 2015 to cheating on U.S. emissions tests by equipping diesel cars with software that turned on emissions controls when the vehicles were on test stands, and reduced the controls during normal driving.

Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn was charged in March in the U.S. with wire fraud and conspiring to violate the U.S. Clean Air Act. Two lower-ranking Volkswagen executives have been sentenced to prison in the United States, while five others have been charged but not been apprehended.

The German prosecutors are investigating Winterkorn and 48 others in connection with the emissions scandal.

Winterkorn resigned days after the U.S. government accused Volkswagen of evading emissions standards, saying at the time that he was not aware of any wrongdoing on his part.</s>German prosecutors have fined the automaker 1 billion euros ($1.18 billion) on Wednesday over diesel emissions cheating allegations. Volkswagen said it will accept the fine, therefore admitting responsibility for the scandal.

“Following thorough examination, Volkswagen AG accepted the fine and it will not lodge an appeal against it. Volkswagen AG, by doing so, admits its responsibility for the diesel crisis and considers this as a further major step towards the latter being overcome,” the company said in a statement on Wednesday.</s>Car maker Volkswagen has said it is being fined one billion euro £880m by German authorities in connection with the diesel emissions scandal.

Volkswagen said it would accept the fine imposed by prosecutors in the German city of Braunschweig.

Prosecutors concluded that Volkswagen failed to properly oversee the activity of its engine development department, resulting in some 10.7 million diesel vehicles with illegal emissions-controlling software being sold worldwide.

The scandal, which came to light in the United States in 2015, has already cost the German car giant billions in penalties imposed by US authorities.

The firm said it hoped that paying the German fine would have "positive effects on other official proceedings being conducted in Europe against Volkswagen" and its subsidiaries.
Volkswagen is fined €1 billion by German prosecutors after cheating on diesel particulate emissions testing.