Owners will receive compensation ranging from $5,000 to $10,000.
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The settlement also includes $2.7 billion for environmental mitigation and another $2 billion to promote zero-emissions vehicles.
Tuesday’s settlement filed with Judge Charles Breyer would settle claims from the U.S. government as well as a large number of plaintiffs including owners, lessees and dealers.
Nevertheless, he said upon EPA approval of repairs for affected US vehicles the repairs would be offered to Volkswagen customers in Canada.
Volkswagen will clearly make an effort to win back existing diesel owners who will need new vehicles when they accept the company’s buyback offer.
In either case, the owners would also get a cash settlement ranging from 5,100 to 10,000 depending on the vehicle. Full details of the agreement are online at VWCourtSettlement.com. The amount could be as much as 130 percent of the buyback value of the vehicle. The settlement will cost the German automaker $14.7 billion, making it the largest settlement ever paid by an automaker.
The settlement with the USA government requires VW to get 85 percent of the cars recalled by June 30, 2019. The company got away with the scheme for seven years until independent researchers reported it to the Environmental Protection Agency.
In its agreement with the Department of Justice, Volkswagen will pay $4.7 billion in environmental reparations, to be administered by the EPA. In April, VW set aside $18.2 billion to account for the emissions scandal.
At the center of the Volkswagen agreement are “cash for clunkers” programs aimed at taking older, sooty vehicles off the road – and not just Volkswagen models the government alleges were deliberately created to cheat emissions tests.
The affected vehicles, according to a list provided by Miller’s office, include various model year 2009 through 2015 Volkswagen Jettas, Jetta Sportwagens, Golfs, Beetles and Passats, as well as Audi A3s.
An investigation by the North Carolina attorney general’s office found that 17,550 Volkswagens covered by the settlement were purchased in North Carolina, spokeswoman Noelle Talley said in an e-mail.
VW has so far declined to offer compensation to owners outside the US but, over the weekend, a senior European Union official called on the maker to match the American compensation program in the EU.
Lawyers’ fees are being paid by VW on top of the almost $15 billion in vehicle buybacks, repairs, restitution and remediation.
Volkswagen announced today that it reached a $15.3 billion settlement with the United States Department of Justice to resolve civil claims regarding the USA diesel issue.
What will owners and lessees of affected VWs and Audis get under the settlement? The $14.7 billion settlement with consumers and federal agencies, announced Tuesday, is the biggest payout by an automaker in US history.
That’s not enough for all VW’s critics, as NPR’s Sonari Glinton noted on Morning Edition. VW hasn’t yet submitted a plan to fix the vehicles. “But $15 billion – which is 20 percent of VW’s worth – you can call it what you want but you can’t call it a slap on the wrist”. Volkswagen has until the end of 2018 to come up with a viable update, one of the people said.
The attorneys generals’ investigation confirmed that Volkswagen sold more than 570,000 2.0- and 3.0-liter diesel vehicles in the United States equipped with “defeat device” software, which was meant to circumvent emissions standards for air pollutants, including nitrogen oxide.
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VW still faces criminal investigations in Germany and other countries, as well as a raft of lawsuits from investors around the world for what they describe as losses incurred after the scandal erupted.
