It comes three months after the car maker admitted that it that used software to spew out as much as 40 times the legal limit for emissions, equating to more than 10,000 tonnes of nitrogen oxide pollutants each year.

Volkswagen Australia has confirmed at least 78,000 Volkswagen vehicles have been sold in Australia with a so-called "defeat device" fitted to engines, including an estimated 61,000 passenger cars.

But the company could not say whether its "consumer-friendly" solution – which basically involves fitting a piece of mesh over its air mass sensor - would effect fuel consumption or the vehicle's overall performance.

"The objective for the development of the technical measures is still to achieve the applicable emission targets in each case without any adverse effects on the engine output, fuel consumption and performance," the company said in a statement.

"However, as all model variants first have to be measured, the achievement of these targets cannot yet be finally confirmed."

The piece of mesh, or "flow transformer" is designed to help measure the accuracy of air intake for optimum combustion and will be fitted to only to the rigged 1.6 litre diesel engines. It said it should take less than an hour to install.

The bigger two litre engines will only need a software upgrade, Volkswagen said, adding it should take about 30 minutes.

It expects to find a solution for its rigged 1.2 litre engines before the end of November and said it would most likely involve a software update.