The owners of 5700 new cars of the Volkswagen and Audi brands in Bulgaria will have to have their cars refitted due to the presence of illegal emission-control software.

The scandal broke out on September 18, when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Volkswagen had to refit nearly half a million cars equipped with illegal software to bypass diesel emissions tests.

The company said in a statement that 11 million cars worldwide were impacted and that it was launching a service procedure to fix the problem.

According to the Bulgarian dealer of the two brands, Porsche BG, as cited by dnevnik.bg, the number of affected vehicles supplied by the company stands at 3500 VW cars, 900 light goods vehicles, and 1300 Audi vehicles.

All of the vehicles carry only Type EA 189 diesel engines.

On September 29, Volkswagen AG announced an action plan to correct the emissions characteristics of diesel vehicles.

In a first step, the customers affected will be informed that the emissions characteristics of their vehicles will be corrected in the near future, according to a media statement of the company.

All vehicles are technically safe and roadworthy, Volkswagen AG assures.

Under the action plan, Volkswagen and the other Group brands whose vehicles are affected will present the technical solutions and measures to the responsible authorities in October.

Customers with these vehicles will be kept informed over the coming weeks and months.

All of the Group brands affected will set up national websites to update customers on developments.An internal evaluation established that a service procedure is required for some five million vehicles from the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand out of a total eleven million Group vehicles worldwide.

These vehicles from certain models and model years (such as the sixth generation Volkswagen Golf, the seventh generation Volkswagen Passat or the first generation Volkswagen Tiguan) are fitted with Type EA 189 diesel engines.