German vehicle maker Volkswagen is to pay a record 15.3 billion dollar settlement for cheating on US emissions tests.
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German vehicle maker Volkswagen AG is to pay more than 15.3 billion dollars – around 13.8 billion euros – in an historic settlement deal with government regulators and nearly 500,000 US diesel car owners.
The agreement, which settles charges that VW cheated on US emissions tests, will pay for buying back the vehicles of affected consumers and also free up funds expected to benefit producers of cleaner technologies.
Patrick Min, Senior Industry Insights Analyst for Truecar discussed the record-breaking deal: “The settlement for Volkswagen is really the first step that they’ve made publicly after the admission of fault they made publicly in September of last year. So the amount of 15 billion dollars, far and away the largest amount in US history is really the first step in terms of setting aside money in order to repair vehicles or potentially buy them back from owners.”
The US Justice Department formally filed the deal, which is the largest-ever automotive buyback offer in the country.
In September, 2015, VW admitted it had installed secret, illegal software enabling US vehicles to emit up to 40 times the legally allowable pollution.