German carmaker Daimler AG on Tuesday denied media reports that it will have to recall more diesel vehicles than recently ordered by the German ministry of transport in the latest development of the country's "dieselgate" scandal.

"The recall is definitely limited to the figures quoted on Monday" a spokesperson for the Stuttgart-based company told the press, referring to the public announcement of a mandatory recall of 774,000 vehicles in Europe.

Citing information from company insiders, the German newspaper "BILD" subsequently reported that the total European tally of Daimler cars suspected of having been fitted with illicit defeat devices to understate Nitrogen Oxide (NOx) emission levels was actually as high as 3 million.

Daimler reiterated on Tuesday that it was cooperating fully with the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) in Germany to assess whether technology installed by 774,000 cars affected by the recall breached automotive industry regulations. The company further emphasized that the bulk of these vehicles were already included in a voluntary recall program which it had launched in order to lower NOx emissions levels with software updates.

Daimler announced back in July 2017 that it would join other carmakers in voluntarily committing to software updates for three million of its own vehicles affected by the "dieselgate" scandal. Daimler and other automotive industry representatives have since heard growing criticism from the Federal Environmental Agency (UBA) and senior policymakers, however, that the agreed measures were inadequate in lowering urban NOx pollution compared to costlier technical, or "hardware" updates for diesel motors and exhaust systems.

Nevertheless, Daimler stressed on Tuesday that it would deliver on the earlier promise to invest "around 220 million euros" in software updates.

Daimler AG is the owner of the prestigious "Mercedes-Benz" brand among others and was one of Germany's three largest carmakers in 2017 with gross annual revenue of 164.3 billion euros.