Volkswagen would repair or buy back polluting diesel vehicles and pay each owner as much as $10,000 under a $14.7 billion ($NZ21b)deal the car maker has reached to settle lawsuits stemming from its emissions cheating scandal, a person briefed on the settlement talks said Monday.
The figure would be the largest auto scandal settlement in U.S. history and a huge step in Volkswagen's efforts to address the legal fallout from its admission that its vehicles were designed to fool emissions tests.
How VW would repair the vehicles to bring them into compliance with clean air laws has not yet been finalized, the person said.
Owners who choose to have VW buy back their cars would get the clean trade-in value from before the scandal became public on Sept. 18, 2015. The average value of a VW diesel has dropped 19 percent since just before the scandal began.In August of 2015, the average was $13,196, and this May it was $10,674, according to Kelley Blue Book.
The settlement still requires a judge's approval before it can go into effect.
Owners can choose to decline Volkswagen's offer and sue the company on their own.The settlement also includes $2.7 billion for environmental mitigation and another $2 billion for research on zero-emissions technology, the person said.
The scandal erupted in September when it was learned that the German auto-maker had fitted many of its cars with software to fool emissions tests and had put dirty vehicles on the road. Investigators determined that the cars emitted more than 40 times the legal limit of nitrogen oxide, which can cause respiratory problems in humans.
Car owners and the U.S. Department of Justice sued.
VW is still facing billions more in fines and penalties, a lawsuit by state attorneys general and potential criminal charges.
The $14.7 billion settlement also does not include another roughly 90,000 3-litre Volkswagen diesels, which had another version of cheating software.
The company has admitted developing sophisticated software that determined when the cars were being tested by the EPA on a treadmill-like device called a dynamometer and turned on the pollution controls. Once all wheels began spinning and the steering wheel was turned, the controls were turned off.
The company, which knew the EPA's testing routine, got away with the scam for seven years before being caught by the International Council on Clean Transportation, which hired West Virginia University to test a VW in real roads conditions.
Source: Driven.co.nz | Stuff.co.nz
