BMW recalls 12,000 diesel cars over emissions

German high-end carmaker BMW on Friday recalled thousands of diesel cars for a software update, after reports it had admitted to authorities they released more harmful emissions on the road than in the lab.

BMW "noticed during internal testing that correctly programmed software was wrongly used in a few models that were not compatible," the group said in a statement.

The Munich-based company "immediately informed the relevant authorities... (and) therefore plans to recall 11,700 vehicles worldwide," it added.

"Niche motor variants of an already discontinued generation of the 5-series and 7-series built between 2012 and 2017" were affected, BMW said.

Der Spiegel magazine reported earlier Friday that BMW had admitted to the KBA vehicle licensing authority that some of its cars included software that could mislead regulatory tests for levels of harmful nitrogen oxides (NOx).

Suspicion fell on the entire German car industry after Volkswagen -- parent company of BMW competitor Audi -- admitted in September 2011 that it deliberately built such "defeat device" software into 11 million cars worldwide.

But BMW has so far been able to trumpet clean diesel credentials.