San Francisco - Volkswagen has agreed to spend nearly $15 billion to get 480 000 emissions-cheating diesel vehicles off US roads and placate regulators even as it struggles to devise an acceptable fix under an agreement with the US government.
Under the agreement announced on Tuesday, car owners will have the choice of having Volkswagen buy back their vehicles or install whatever pollution-control retrofit is eventually accepted by regulators. In either case, the drivers will get as much as $10 000 each in additional compensation.
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VW will also have to pay $2.7 billion to federal and California regulators for a trust to fund pollution-reduction projects and also make a $2 billion investment in clean technology.
The settlement total far exceeds any previous US civil settlement with an automaker, and it brings VW closer to the 16.2 billion euros ($17.85 billion) it has set aside to cover the costs of the scandal.
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If VW fails to get an 85 percent recall rate by June 30, 2019, it will have to pay $85 million more into the environmental mitigation trust for each percentage point of the shortfall. It will also have to pay an additional $13.5 million into the trust for each percentage point it fall below the 85 percent target in California.
VW, whose brands include Audi and Porsche, has admitted to systematically rigging environmental tests since 2009 to hide that its diesel vehicles were emitting far more pollutants than allowed under US and California law.
BLOOMBERG