BERLIN, May 18 (Xinhua) -- Germany's Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) ordered the luxury carmaker and Volkswagen subsidiary Porsche to recall more than 60,000 new diesel vehicles, German magazine SPIEGEL and radio station Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR) reported on Friday.
According to the reports, the latest episode in the German diesel emissions scandal affects 53,000 diesel vehicles of the Porsche model Macan and 6,800 vehicles of the Cayenne model.
"Due to the installation of defeat devices, the vehicles can release higher Nitrogen Oxide (NOx) emissions during operations (than measured in test settings)," a spokesperson for the ministry of transport told SPIEGEL and BR.
Embarrassingly for Porsche and the German government, the vehicles in question were all fitted with newest Euro6 type of diesel motors which are being marketed as a cleaner alternative to older diesel vehicles.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has recently sided with carmakers in rejecting growing calls for comprehensive technical updates and argued that subsidies to incentivize customers to be newer, allegedly less-polluting, diesel cars offered a better way to lower NOx emissions levels in cities.
The revelations come shortly after the European Union (EU) filed formal charges against Germany for failing to comply with urban air regulations on Thursday.
The development has reignited tensions within the federal government over the handling of the diesel emissions scandal, with the German Social Democrats (SPD) urging the Christian Social Union (CSU) and Christian Democratic Union (CDU) to finally take a firmer stance against fraudulent companies in the national automotive industry.
Only recently, Volkswagen admitted that the KBA had discovered illegal defeat devices to falsify actual NOx emissions which were also installed in the current production series of Audi A6 and A7 vehicles.
Both models were advertised with an "environmental premium" of up to 10,000 euros (11,800 U.S. dollars) which customers would receive if they agreed in the sale to have their older diesel cars demolished.
