Volkswagen has announced the recall of 1,950 diesel vehicles in China, marking the beginning of its efforts to remove defeat devices from 11 million of its cars worldwide.
The devices were first discovered in September, plunging the carmaker into a scandal which has seen its CEO forced to resign and its reputation severely damaged.
Volkswagen said the China recall applies to 1,946 Tiguan sport utility vehicles and four Passat B6 sedans, all of which were imported from abroad.
The firm has acknowledged a technical solution for the removal of the devices is still in development and has not yet been given approval from the Chinese authorities.
But pressure has been mounting for Volkswagen to begin the process of recalling its cars.
The Californian Air Resources Board (CARB) said on Friday it had given the company a deadline of 20 November to develop the fix and announce a plan to refit the cars affected.
The news comes as the managing director of Volkswagen Group UK, Paul Willis, is due to face MPs to answer questions on the scandal.
Volkswagen was forced to apologise after it was discovered it had developed the devices, which were designed to trick emission tests in the US for some of its diesel models.
The devices are able to detect when cars are undergoing tests, and can switch the vehicle to a low emission mode in order to achieve more favourable results.
This means many people have bought cars which are much less environmentally friendly than they had been led to believe.
Volkswagen has said 11 million cars are affected worldwide, including five million from its own brand, 2.1 million Audis and 1.2 million Skoda vehicles.
It has also been suggested in recent days that the European Investment Bank (EIB) will be looking at whether there is a basis to demand the return of loans granted to Volkswagen over the past 25 years.
The money was in part intended to go towards the development and manufacturing of low emission engines, but EIB chief Werner Hoyer told a German newspaper there would be a "thorough investigation" into how the €4.6bn (£3.4bn) was spent.
If it is discovered the loans were not used as intended, Hoyer says the organisation would have to look at ways to recover the funds.
"The EIB could have taken a hit (from the emissions scandal) because we have to fulfil certain climate targets with our loans," he is quoted as saying in a summary of an article to be published later.
Volkswagen has lost around 35% of its share value since the scandal broke.
(Sky News)
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