Volkswagen Group said it has now set aside 16.2 billion euros ($18.2 billion) to deal with the cost of the scandal.
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The more than doubling of financial provisions for the diesel emission test manipulation scandal pushed Volkswagen to a pre-tax loss of €1.3 billion (£1 billion) in 2015 – the largest loss in the company history.
VW admitted last September to installing so-called “defeat devices” in 11 million diesel engines worldwide.
Volkswagen is not yet able to put a figure on the total cost of cleaning up the diesel emissions cheating scandal until a final deal is struck with authorities in the United States, Chief Executive Matthias Mueller has said.
The company had previously estimated the scandal would cost it 6.7 billion euros ($7.5 billion).
Volkswagen also announced on Friday the publication of an internal investigation of how the cheating occurred will be delayed until a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice is resolved. A lawyer for Volkswagen, Robert Giuffra, said during Thursday’s hearing that the agreement represented “an important step forward on the road to making things right” as the company attempts to fully compensate customers and win back public trust.
On Thursday, Daimler said the U.S. Justice Department asked the company to investigate irregularities in diesel emissions in its Mercedes-brand vehicles.
VW has promised drivers in Europe, where emissions limits are more lax and where many drivers bought the cars for the German manufacturer’s green credentials, a quick software fix from January that it said could even make their cars more efficient. VW’s cars could tell when they were on the test stand and turned up the emissions controls, then turned them off in real-world driving to improve performance and mileage.
Some models used technology to switch off the vehicles’ emissions treatment systems at certain temperatures to protect the engine, he said.
Yesterday, a federal judge announced an agreement between US officials, private parties and Volkswagen to offer its customers a number of options to resolve emissions issues, including buying back vehicles and repairing cars to meet current standards.
Breyer, according to reports, said that VW will either fix the affected vehicles or purchase them outright.
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Excluding the writedown and other charges, VW posted an operating profit of 12.8 billion euros ($14.4 billion) on revenue of 213.3 billion euros ($239.4 billion).
