SEAT reveals 700,000 cars contain test cheating software

Spanish car manufacturer Seat now finds itself in the middle of the VW emissions scandal after revealing 700,000 of its cars contains the software that allowed parent company Volkswagen to cheat US emissions tests.

Seat officials are now trying to determine which markets these cars were sold in, but admitted the vehicles were “distributed by SEAT’s global network.”

However, the majority of cars are believed to be located throughout Europe, with over 3,000 in Spain.

Seat is also launching a search facility via its website where owners can check if their vehicle has the test cheating software.

Furthermore, the Spanish car manufacturer has halted the sale and delivery of cars containing the EA 189 engine which uses the software.

The scandal was first discovered earlier this month when US officials accused Volkswagen of installing software which could turn on pollution controls when undergoing tests, and then turn the controls off once the car isn’t in use.

After admitting this to be true, the German company revealed up to 11 million diesel engine cars from all brands in the VW Group are affected.

Car brands containing the test cheating software include:

• VW - 5m
• Audi - 2.1m
• Skoda - 1.2m
• Seat - 700,000
• Vans - 1.8m

CEO Martin Winterkorn has already resigned over the scandal and his replacement, Matthias Mueller, has promised to thoroughly investigate why this happened.