The Volkswagen Group will pay around $10-billion to settle the emissions cheating scandal in the United States, according to reports.
The settlement, which reportedly includes the German automaker paying US owners of the affected diesel vehicles between $1 000 and $7 000 each (depending on the car’s age), is being negotiated for submission to a federal judge, according to Bloomberg sources.
The deal is furthermore expected to involve VW funding a programme designed to offset the air pollution caused by the 482 000 affected diesel vehicles sold in the United States.
But VW will likely have to set aside even more money to pay penalties for breaking American clean-air laws, to buy back certain vehicles that cannot be fixed (at each car’s value before the scandal became public back in September 2015), and to settle numerous class-action lawsuits.
Of course, this apparent deal would cover just the US, with the remainder of the estimated 11 million diesel cars affected worldwide having been sold in other countries.
At the same time as these reports started making headlines, Volkswagen announced that the slow-selling Jetta Hybrid would be axed from its US line-up, which follows rumours that the VW Group plans to kill off more than 40 models across its multi-brand range.
