Volkswagen Group avoided a
trial in the US as it reached a deal with the American authorities over the
emissions scandal, media reports say.
German newspaper “Die Welt”
and Reuters news agency reported that the German giant multinational agreed to
compensate each fixed vehicle owner with $5,000. Moreover, VW will repair the
vehicles installed with the “defeat device” and in some cases it may also offer
to buy back some of the affected vehicles.
Reuters also reported
earlier on Wednesday that VW decided to increase the money it has set aside to
cover the emissions scandal financial costs. It currently has $7.6 billion
earmarked and Bloomberg reported that the German auto maker now agreed to set
aside at least $10 billion to resolve the ongoing civil cases in the US.
The news about the
agreement came just hours before the end of the deadline imposed by a US Court
which wants from VW to propose a feasible plan to take care of the damages
caused by the emissions scandal. If the plan wasn’t considered adequate by the
US authorities then a trial would have started over the summer. Judge Charles Breyer, who handles the case,
had made it clear that VW needed to come with a proposal that would either
repair thealmost 600,000 fixed vehicles or get them off the road.
Besides the settlement over
the damage caused to the owners of the fixed vehicles, Volkswagen also needs to
deal with the lawsuit carried out by the Department of Justice (DoJ)on
behalf of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). According to Bloomberg,
the DoJ might charge VW with tens of billions in fines for the breaking of the
Clean Air Acts laws.
Moreover, the US owner of
three Volkswagen Group dealerships sued the German carmaker over the losses his
retail shops suffered due to the emissions scandal.
According to Bloomberg, an
estimate from Evercore ISI suggests that the company’s total cost from the
environmental scandal could reach about 30 billion euros.
https://neurope.eu/article/volkswagen-reportedly-avoids-us-trial-compensates-car-owners-affected/