Volkswagen recalls Chinese cars

Volkswagen has said it is recalling almost 2,000 cars in China as the fallout from the diesel emissions scandal continues.

The country's environment ministry also announced an investigation into VW cars sold in China, after the German carmaker admitted installing software designed to cheat emissions tests.

VW has said that 11 million vehicles are affected worldwide.

The carmaker offered its "sincerest apologies" to its Chinese customers.

It is recalling 1,950 cars, mainly Tiguan models, all imported into China. This represents a small fraction of the total number of VWs imported by the country.

However, analysts said the recall comes at a bad time for the world's biggest carmaker.

"I have so far seen little impact on consumers' confidence and trust in the VW brand [in China], but we need to continue to monitor that," said Yale Zhang from Shanghai-based Automotive Foresight.

"Their sales are already weak this year thanks to the slowdown in China's general economy.

"If sales took a further beating from the current emissions scandal, that would further complicate their position globally following the scandal."

VW has already appointed a new chief executive and chairman after the revelations last month that its cars cheated emissions tests in the US.

The company has launched a thorough investigation into the scandal, but new chairman Hans Dieter Poetsch warned last week that answers would take "some time".

VW has set aside €6.5bn ($7.4bn; £4.8bn) to cover the costs of the scandal, but some experts believe the final bill could be much higher.

Shares in the company recovered slightly last week but are still down more than 20% since the scandal broke in the middle of September.