Brasilia, Sep 26 (IANS): Brazil will investigate whether Volkswagen (VW) cars in the country were also involved in the lately exposed emissions cheating scandal, the IBAMA environmental protection agency has said.

Volkswagen violated the Clean Air Act by installing software in its cars that showed false emission data, the EPA has said on Friday.

The software called "defeat device" by the EPA can turn on full emission controls only when the car is undergoing emission tests to make it meet the legal emission standards.

But during normal driving, the car will emit nitrogen oxides at up to 40 times the standard.

The Brazilian government wanted to find out whether the Volkswagen vehicles sold in Brazil also had the software.

Volkswagen is one of the largest vehicle manufacturers and suppliers in the South American country.

The Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA) considered the fraud to be "very serious".

The watchdog said if the fraud is confirmed, VW will not only pay a hefty fine but also be obligated to correct the problem in all vehicles in which the software is installed.

Over 11 million diesel-fuelled vehicles of VW have been equipped with the software in the world.

The scandal has already caused the company's CEO Martin Winterkorn to resign earlier this week.