On Friday, Volkswagen’s Porsche division said it would recall 13,500 vehicles globally, including more than 9,100 Cayenne and Panamera vehicles in China. The recall affects models built between March 2011 and May 2012 with the three-liter V6 engine. On Saturday, the Audi division said it would recall various models of more than 35,000 cars in China to fix the same problem.
The problem is a leaking seal in the fuel injection system that could allow fuel to evaporate and fumes to escape. Under Chinese regulations, however, manufacturers are required to specify the worst case scenario in a recall notice, and in this case that scenario is that the fumes catch fire. A spokesman for Porsche told The Detroit News that no such incidents have been reported.
China’s regulatory agency, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, has also issued a recall for nearly 52,000 vehicles manufactured by Volkswagen and its Chinese joint venture FAW-Volkswagen. VW is also recalling a small number of its Touareg models in Germany and more than 16,000 in China to fix the same problem.
VW’s goal to become the world’s largest automaker depends to a large degree on its success in the Chinese market. VW sold 10.14 million vehicles worldwide in 2014, finishing second to Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM), which posted a total of 10.23 million.
Toyota has already said it expects sales to fall by about 1% in 2015 to around 10.15 million. For VW to sell another 10,001 cars to edge past Toyota in global sales should be a slam-dunk.
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