Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday said that the failure to attract Volkswagen company to invest in Sri Lanka was due to the emission scandal.

The government had given an election promise that a Volkswagen factory will be constructed in Kuliyapitiya.

Wickremesinghe said that the government had plans to bring Volkswagen to invest in Sri Lanka but were forced to abandon the plans after the company was hit with the scandal.

The Volkswagen emissions scandal (also known as "emissionsgate" or "dieselgate") erupted on 18 September 2015, when the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a notice of violation of the Clean Air Act to German automaker Volkswagen Group, after it was found that Volkswagen had intentionally programmed turbocharged direct injection (TDI) diesel engines to activate certain emissions controls only during laboratory emissions testing.