No end to recalls by the Volkswagen Group

Audi recalls its best-selling sports utility vehicles Q5 over flouting emission limits prescribed for it

One of Audi's best-selling sports utility vehicles, the Q5, is being recalled by the company for flouting emission limits prescribed for it.

This is the second such recall by the German company in India in nine months. In December, Audi announced a recall of 36,500 cars which was part of the 324,000 cars recalled by the Volkswagen Group in the country.

While the earlier recall was for diesel-only model the latest Q5 recall is also for diesel. The Audi Q5, with a starting price of Rs 48.44 lakh (Ex-showroom, Delhi), is sold in India only with a 2.0 litre TDI diesel engine.

India's premier research and testing agency, Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) tested the Q5 and found it to emit higher than normal NOx gases.

Spokespeople at Audi India did not respond to questions immediately while calls and messages to ARAI were not answered. However a call made to the south Mumbai-based dealership of Audi revealed that the Q5 is still on sale and there has been no communication if any recall from Audi on it.

In Germany earlier this year the Q5 was one of the four models to be recalled for fixing software manipulation that allowed it to cheat test for toxic NOx emission.

The Audi Q5's recall comes at a time when Tata Motors-owned Jaguar is preparing to introduce a rival model F-Pace in the next few weeks. The Q5 also competes against BMW 3 Series and Mercedes-Benz GLC.