SIVA director Fernando Monteiro said that, as previously announced by the Volkswagen group, the call for owners of affected vehicles to bring them into the group's workshops "will start in January".


According to Monteiro, the aim is to start fixing the problem "from the end of January in successive waves, following the plan defined by the Volkswagen group". The general idea, he added, "is that the situation pose as little inconvenience to clients as possible."


The necessary operations, he said, are "simple in terms of time", but those clients that need alternative transport while their own vehicle is out of action are to be provided for.


Volkswagen, which owns the VW, Audi, Seat and Skoda brands, announced on 10 December that it would call in all vehicles with the fraudulent software in January - in an operation that it said could take more than a year to complete.


According to a document unveiled by the Ministry of Economy under the previous government of Portugal, there are 102,140 affected vehicles in the country.