The chief executive of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, Mike Hawes, said: “The EU operates a fundamentally different system to the U.S. – with all European tests performed in strict conditions as required by EU law and witnessed by a government-approved independent approval agency”.

“It’s vital that the public has confidence in vehicle emissions tests and I am calling for the European Commission to investigate this issue as a matter of urgency”.

“Ideally we need to move towards a testing model that’s based on real driving emissions, carried out with vehicles operated on normal roads”.

European politicians on Wednesday voted to speed up rules to tighten compliance with pollution limits on cars, adding to pressure for reform after USA regulators caught Volkswagen AG rigging the performance of vehicles in tests.

If you’ve been listening to the radio or watching television, you could be forgiven for thinking that the VW scandal is the magic bullet that explains the age-old shortfall between the official fuel economy figures and what modern cars achieve in real-world use. It has set aside 6.5 billion euros (£4.7bn) to cover arising costs.

As fuel consumption is directly related to emissions, this means that emissions are also higher than test cycles indicate. Meanwhile the VW board is believed to be gathering for a crisis meeting.

“The market is anticipating more than just the United States issue”.

Calls for reviews of carmakers rang out in Germany, Italy and France, where Finance Minister Michel Sapin called for a continent-wide investigation, even if he suggested there was “no particular reason” to suspect any French companies of any wrongdoing. “It must be done at a European level”.

The results are submitted to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which decides whether to accept them or test the vehicle itself. “I think we are in a state where neither policy nor auto manufacturers can behave like nothing has happened”. “For the sake of our consumers and the environment, we need certainty that industry scrupulously respects emissions limits”, she added.

All of the current noise about rethinking the European Union emissions tests – including the industry saying that it has seeking agreement on a test that is more representative of real-world conditions – is actually old news and has little, if anything, to do with VW cheating in the American NOx test.