Alexander Dobrindt also announced there would be follow-up tests by the state motor transport authority KBA to double-check the results of exhaust tests ordered by the manufacturers.
The minister said there would be "a comprehensive package of measures" to tighten the approval process, including "disclosure of engine software" to the KBA, confirming a report in the Bild am Sonntag newspaper.
Dobrindt said carmakers would also regularly have to rotate the auditing organisations they task with carrying out emissions tests on their new models, the newspaper reported.
VW was found to have used so-called "defeat devices" that activate emissions controls during testing, then turn them off under normal operations, allowing illegal amounts of nitrogen oxide to spew into the air.
The costs facing VW, once seen as the paragon of German industry, are still incalculable, in terms of reputation and global earnings and because it faces billions in possible fines and legal costs.