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The troubled German carmaker Volkswagen (VW) has announced it will recall around 11 million cars following the emissions tests scandal that has mired the company in controversy. Some industry analysts predict the recall could cost the auto manufacturer more than $6.5 billion. Last week, VW admitted cheating in diesel emissions tests in the United States and Europe. It manipulated data to falsely show that VW cars were a lot more fuel-efficient than was really the case. The company is Europe's largest carmaker and employs over 750,000 people. It has lost more than a third of its market value on stock markets and has badly tarnished its reputation as being a leader in clean energy.
Chief executives at VW could face criminal charges over the scandal. Olaf Lies, a Volkswagen board member, told the BBC TV programme Newsnight that some staff acted criminally over emission tests. He said: "Those people who allowed this to happen, or who made the decision to install this software, acted criminally. They must take personal responsibility." He added: "We only found out about the problems in the last board meeting, shortly before the media did. I want to be quite open, so we need to find out why the board wasn't informed earlier about the problems when they were known about over a year ago in the United States."
