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The Mercedes-Benz star is displayed on the front of a Mercedes-Benz vehicle at the annual news conference of German auto giant Daimler AG in Stuttgart, southwestern Germany, on Feb. 1, 2018.THOMAS KIENZLE/AFP/Getty Images

Germany’s Transport Ministry said on Monday that 774,000 Mercedes-Benz vehicles in Europe had been found to contain unauthorized software defeat devices and ordered Daimler to recall more than 200,000 cars in Germany.

Mercedes-Benz C-Class and Vito models with diesel engines and a sports utility variant of the sedan, known as the GLC, were the main cars found to be at fault, the ministry said.

“The government will order 238,000 Daimler vehicles to be immediately recalled Germany-wide because of unauthorized defeat devices,” the ministry said in a statement.

Germany can only order the recall of vehicles within its own borders, or of those vehicles issued with a pan-European roadworthiness certification via German authorities.

Daimler has pledged to work on removing the software and to co-operate with authorities, the ministry said.

Daimler Chief Executive Dieter Zetsche said on Monday that the car maker had found a technical solution for updating the software on its vehicles, and he therefore expected the company would avoid a fine.

In a separate statement, Daimler confirmed the recall and said the question over the legality of the software would still need to be clarified.

Evercore ISI analyst Arndt Ellinghorst predicted the costs for the required software update for Daimler would be less than 100 million euros.

“We don’t see any evidence that Daimler was designing software to deliberately cheat on emission testing,” he said. “Overall, this outcome should de-risk the stock.”

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