Deadline to join the legal action against VW is expected to be at the end of October this year.

Slater and Gordon, the law firm representing the largest group of over 40,000 car owners affected by the emissions scandal in the litigation against VW, has been awarded a joint lead role in the legal action against VW, subject to approval of the President of the Queens Bench Division.

The legal action group being led by Slater and Gordon is being funded by Therium, a leading global litigation funder, which is paying for all of the legal costs. There is therefore no cost to joining the legal action at vwemissionsaction.com.

Affected cars include VW, Audi, SEAT and Skoda vehicles with 1.2, 1.6 and 2.0 EA 189 diesel engines manufactured between 2009 and 2015.

Gareth Pope, from Slater and Gordon which is representing more than 40,000 affected car owners, said: “We have made a huge step forward in the affected motorists’ battle for justice against the world’s largest car manufacturer. The granting of the Group Litigation Order allows all affected VW, Seat, Skoda and Audi car owners to join forces rather than fight individual cases.

“VW profited by betraying the trust of their customers. It has been two years since the scandal broke and the only thing that VW has offered UK consumers is a fix that our clients have told us doesn’t work. Now those consumers have the chance to hold VW to account for their deceit and will finally have their day in court. Given the scale of the deceit affecting over one million car owners in England and Wales, we have put in place funding so that consumers don’t have to pay to join the claim, making it possible for as many past and present owners as possible to join what we expect will be the largest consumer legal action in the country’s history regardless of whether VW have ‘fixed’ their cars.”

The first pre-trial hearing is expected to be in early 2019.