US stocks tumbled in opening trade Tuesday, following European markets sharply lower as the Volkswagen emissions scandal hit shares of major automakers.

Five minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was at 16,291.64, down 218.55 points (1.32 percent).

The broad-based S&P 500 fell 25.71 (1.31 percent) to 1,941.26, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 68.06 (1.41 percent) to 4,760.90

Leading European bourses, including Paris and Frankfurt, were down more than three percent as sentiment was dented by the snowballing scandal over Volkswagen's clean-air cheating device in its diesel cars.

General Motors fell 3.2 percent and Ford 2.9 percent.