Volkswagen has pledged to complete fixes to the 8.5 million vehicles affected by dieselgate recalls by autumn 2017 in a letter to Brussels.

The German manufacturing giant had originally planned to complete the work on customer vehicles by the end of this year, but laid-out the new timeline in a letter sent to EU justice commissioner Vera Jourova.

Efforts would also be made to improve communications to customers, with the creation of a single, multilingual website for affected Volkswagen owners, according to a report in the FT.

The letter, dated September 23, was penned by VW board member Franciso Garcia Sanz and suggested that a “written action plan” addressing the recalls would be sent to officials in Brussels by the end of this month.

Ms Jourova told the FT that Volkswagen’s setting of a hard end date for repairs was “an important first step”.

Earlier this month the government’s Transport Select Committee was told that less than 10% of the UK’s 1.2 million affected Volkswagen owners had received a fix for the emissions test-dodging vehicles in the year since the dieselgate scandal broke.

Louise Ellman, Labour MP and chair of the Transport Select Committee, described the manufacturer’s efforts as "simply unacceptable".

She said: "One year on from the Volkswagen emissions scandal, nine out of 10 drivers are still waiting for their car to be recalled. Time and time again, VW's schedule has slipped.

"This is simply unacceptable when Paul Willis, VW UK's managing director, promised the Transport Committee that VW drivers could expect to have their cars fixed by the end of this year.”