S Korea suspends sales of most Volkswagen models

South Korea today suspended sales of most Volkswagen AG models dealing a fresh blow to the German automaker as it looks to contain the global fallout of its emissions-test cheating scandal and rebuild its tattered image.

The certification of the luxury car maker's 80 model variants across VW, Audi and Bentley stand revoked and Volkswagen would pay a fine of 17.8 billion won ($16.06 million) for allegedly forging documents on emissions or noise-level tests.

The move could push back sales for Europe's biggest automaker in the Asian market, where its local unit had more than tripled revenue to 2.82 trillion won in the past five years before before the emissions scandal hit.

Describing the ruling as "most severe", Volkswagen had said it would consider a legal challenge.

According to commentators, though South Korea was a relatively small market for Volkswagen, it was a major market for its luxury marques Audi and Bentley and one of the fastest-growing markets for all brands. The company's sales had more tripled in the country, before it was hit by the emissions scandal.

South Korea's environment ministry also revoked certification for an additional 83,000 cars, which brought the total number of cars de-certified to over 200,000, which was about 68 per cent of the 300,000 cars sold by VW in Korea since 2007, Yonhap news agency said.

The South Korean authorities are cracking down hard on Volkswagen, which has not only been fined and sales of its brands banned but prosecutors want executives to be put on trial too.