Yahoo Autos VW Will Pay U.S. TDI Owners $5,000 Each to Compensate for Emissions Cheating
After months of deliberations, it's said that Volkswagen and the U.S. government have finally come to an agreement over how VW will compensate American customers affected by the ongoing diesel emissions scandal. German newspaper Die Welt reported Wednesday that VW will pay affected U.S. customers $5000 each, per a Reuters report. Update: See below.
Volkswagen sold around 600,000 cars in the U.S. equipped with a so-called "defeat device," which allowed the cars to emit up to 40 times the legal limit of nitrogen oxide in real-world driving, but still pass mandated government emissions tests. Up to 11 million cars worldwide were equipped with this software.
A payout of $5000 per affected car in the U.S. would mean that VW would assumedly cost VW as much as total of roughly $3 billion. It's unclear if VW will carry out a recall to repair the affected cars after it financially compensates its customers.
Update, 4/20/2016, 4:30PM: A new report from Reuters indicates that Volkswagen has agreed to buy back 500,000 affected vehicles in the U.S. market. The updated report also indicates that VW has agreed to a massive compensation fund for owners that could total more than $1 billion, though the newer report holds that no decision has been made as to how much money each individual owner will receive.
Die Welt, which cites anonymous sources within the industry, reports that VW will present its plan to Federal Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco Thursday. Volkswagen faced a trial this summer if it didn't present a solution to Judge Breyer by the 21st of this month.
This is arguably the first piece of good news for affected VW TDI customers in the U.S. since VW's cheating was first revealed last September. Progress on an agreement between VW and U.S. regulators has been slow, as has been the investigation into the cheating.
