VW diesel cars lacking refit will lose their registration-magazine

BERLIN, July 24 (Reuters) - Owners of Volkswagen cars affected by the diesel emissions scandal who refuse to get an engine software update will have their vehicles de-registered, Focus Online reported, citing documents of Germany's KBA motor vehicle watchdog.

Volkswagen (VW) has recalled about 11 million vehicles worldwide that were fitted with software capable of cheating emissions tests after its diesel scandal broke in September 2015.

Nearly two years later, almost 5.5 million of the 8.5 million affected models in Europe have been retrofitted, including 1.8 million cars in VW's German home market.

But many drivers do not want their cars to be retrofitted with new software, fearing any changes to make the vehicles comply with emissions standards would result in them being slower and consuming more fuel.

Focus Online reported that depending on when recall notices were issued, some VW drivers could have their cars de-registered as early as next month and would also have to pay any resulting fees.

A spokesman at Wolfsburg-based VW declined to comment. (Reporting by Andreas Cremer; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)