The National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications (NRCS) announced last week that it would launch an investigation to determine whether emission data on Volkswagen vehicles sold in South Africa had also been manipulated.

The NRCS would work with the Department of Environmental Affairs and the Department of Transport “to determine whether  South African vehicles are also affected”, said the regulator in a statement.

“The organisation will do a comparative study on vehicle models implicated, against vehicles that were approved in South Africa, to determine whether there was any manipulation of pollution data.

“This will be followed by sampling and testing of emissions requirements against the relevant South African standard, SANS 20083 (UNECE R83.04). 

“If vehicles are found to be noncompliant, the NRCS will apply a sanctioning process, which will lead to the recall of the relevant vehicles for correction.”

Another potential impact could be on the carbon tax levied on new vehicles sold in South Africa, payable to National Treasury. A higher tax was placed on vehicles producing more harmful emissions.

The NRCS confirmed that all VW cars had completed the appropriate homologation processes to go on sale in South Africa.

The world’s number one vehicle maker (by sales) last week apologised for cheating on emissions tests in the US, admitting its error.

Some 11-million VW diesel cars built since 2008 were affected by the scandal, reported BBC News on the weekend. These vehicles had devices which could detect when the engine was being tested, changing the car's performance to improve results.

Volkswagen CE Martin Winterkorn had been forced out due to the scandal and replaced by Matthias Mueller, the former head of Porsche.

BBC News said 2009 to 2015 Jetta, Beetle, Golf and Audi A3 models and 2014 and 2015 Passat models, sold in the US, featured the devices that produced doctored results.

Some 500 000 vehicles in the US had been affected. However, there were 11-million cars around the world that had the same equipment, with Volkswagen yet to say how many were sold elsewhere in the world.

A number of countries had already indicated that they would probe the relevant VW models sold in their markets to determine if they were also affected.

Italy would, for example, carry out spot checks on at least 1 000 diesel vehicles.

Volkswagen could potentially face a fine of $18-billion.

Volkswagen Group South Africa did not comment on the matter.