Land Rover recall amid gearbox scandal

Jaguar Land Rover China (JLRC) has said it will recall 36,451 faulty automobiles on the Chinese mainland, days after a media expose of gearbox faults in the luxury automaker's vehicles.

According to a report aired by state broadcaster CCTV on Sunday night, owners of JLRC's Evoque cars throughout China have encountered malfunctions such as a sudden stop while driving and a faulty reverse gear, even after after-sales service centers replaced the defective gearboxes with new ones for free.

Technicians have confirmed that the malfunction is a result of mismatching gearbox software, according to JLRC.

The company said in a statement on Thursday night that it will also extend the warranty period to seven years or 240,000 km for the problematic cars, including the models manufactured between July 15, 2013 and Dec. 24, 2014.

Anthea Wang, JLRC's executive vice president of Public Relations and Corporate Communications, said it has received more than 900 reports about the gearbox problem since the first half of 2014.

She said the company started upgrading the software for Evoque owners in January and that the work has so far been completed on 22 percent, around 36,000, of the models sold in China.