Yahoo Autos VW Will Pay California an Additional $86 Million in Diesel Cheating Fines
It takes a lot to make $86 million seem inconsequential, but that's how Volkswagen's diesel scandal has skewed our vision. On top of the astronomical $14.7 billion settlement VW and the U.S. Federal Government have agreed to, the automaker will pay $86 million in civil penalties to the state of California over its emissions-cheating diesel engines.
Reuters reports that $76 million of the California civil penalty will go towards paying for investigations and legal fees stemming from this scandal, while the remainder will go towards preventing future use of defeat devices in emissions-controlled vehicles. This $86 million fine is in addition to $800 million earmarked for California as part of the automaker's $14.7 billion settlement.
Most of the larger, $14.7 billion settlement will go towards buybacks and/or lease cancellations for owners and lessors of VWs equipped with the cheating software. VW will also face a hefty bill for V6 diesels that didn't use the same defeat strategy as the 2.0-liter TDI four-cylinder, but still put out far more pollution than regulations allow. A fix has not been determined for the larger VW TDI engine.
Meanwhile, Germany's government has decided it will not fine Volkswagen at all for the emissions-cheating diesels the automaker sold in its home country, though it will require VW to fix its cars to make them emissions-compliant.
