Audi admits 2.1 million cars have bad emissions devices

ANKARA

Audi admitted on Monday that 2.1 million of its cars are fitted with software to cheat emissions testing -- the same software that parent company Volkswagen admitted to using on Sept. 22.

A spokesman for the luxury car brand, which is a subsidiary of Volkswagen, told the press that a large percentage of its vehicles have the software installed.

About 1.5 million Audi cars in Western Europe have the software installed, of which 577,000 are in Germany. About 13,000 Audi cars in the U.S. also use the software.

Audi car types signaled as using the software are the A1, A3, A4, A5, A6, TT, Q3 and Q5, the spokesman said.

The R&D chief of Audi, along with those of Volkswagen's passenger car division and sports car maker Porsche, have all reportedly been put on leave.

Volkswagen admitted on Sept. 22 that 11 million autos produced by the German carmaker, which is now the world's largest ahead of Toyota, were equipped with the device. The scandal has forced the resignation of Volkswagen chief executive Martin Winterkorn on Sept. 23. He has been replaced by Matthias Muller, head of Volkswagen subsidiary Porsche since 2010.

German prosecutors announced on Monday that they have launched an investigation of Winterkorn's role in the use of the bad emissions devices.

Volkswagen shares have lost about 40 percent of their value on the Frankfurt stock exchange since the scandal broke.