NINE Volkswagen models including two versions of the Golf are to undergo independent emissions tests after potential discrepancies were confirmed in their CO2 readouts.

The company says that it has discovered figures originally published for certain versions of the Polo, Scirocco, Golf, Passat and Jetta may be inaccurate.

It is the latest development in the so-called Dieselgate scandal which started in September when VW admitted that software ‘defeat devices' had been fitted to more than 11 million of its cars to cheat emission tests.

Last month it emerged the car maker was also investigating the possibility that fuel economy and CO2 figures for a further 800,000 vehicles may be wrong.

VW has now announced that checks on those models revealed that possible discrepancies had been found affecting 36,000 cars worldwide and the fuel economy and CO2 figures published originally for the remainder were accurate.

The models involved will now have their emissions re-measured by a ‘neutral technical service' in the next few weeks and the published figures will be re-adjusted if necessary.

The cars involved, all fitted with Euro 6 engines, are:

Polo 1.0-litre TSI BlueMotion 70kW seven-speed DSG

Scirocco 2.0-litre TDI BMT 135kW six-speed manual

Jetta 1.2-litre TSI BMT 77kW six-speed manual

Jetta 2.0-litre TDI BMT 81kW five-speed manual

Golf Convertible 2.0-litre TDI BMT 81kW five-speed manual

Golf 2.0-litre TDI BMT 110kW six-speed manual

Passat Alltrack 2.0-litre TSI 4MOTION BMT 162kW seven-speed DSG

Passat Estate 2.0-litre TDI SCR 4MOTION BMT 176kW seven-speed DSG

Passat Estate1.4-litre TSI ACT BMT 110kW six-speed manual

"The deviations found in the figures for only nine model variants amount to a few grams of CO2 on average, corresponding to increased cycle consumption in the NEDC of approximately 0.1 to 0.2 litres per 100 kilometres," VW said in a statement.

"With an annual production of approximately 36,000 vehicles, these model variants correspond to around only 0.5 per cent of the volume of the Volkswagen brand."

The figures correspond to between two and five miles per gallon although VW stressed that real world economy was not affected.

The company added any suspicion that fuel consumption figures of its current production vehicles had been unlawfully changed was not confirmed by the tests.

Cars affected by the software device - which include more than 1.1 million vehicles in the UK - are due to be recalled in the next few months for fixes.