The cheating emissions scandal is costing Volkswagen an additional $175 million, as the automotive giant has reportedly agreed to pay this amount to US lawyers suing the company.
According to Reuters, which is citing anonymous sources, the issue concerns around approximately 475,000 cars powered by the 2.0-liter diesel engines that were equipped with the sophisticated software that cheats emissions tests, and will be used to pay attorneys and cover other costs.
The amount, which still needs to be approved by a federal judge, is an additional expense for the German officials and shows that the carmaker is willing to move past the cheating emissions scandal and to pay up to $16.7 billion to compensate US owners and to please federal regulators, one year after the Dieselgate scandal surfaced.
An official decision will be taken on Thursday, when US District Judge Charles Breyer will hold a hearing in San Francisco in order to decide whether Volkswagen will be forced to buy-back every single car, in what could become the largest-ever action of its kind seen in the United States.
The lawyers representing owners of the polluting vehicles have yet to make an official statement, and the same applies to Volkswagen’s execs.
The car company, which still faces billions of dollars of potential fines from the US Justice Department, has already agreed to spend up to $10.033 billion in order to buy back the affected vehicles and to compensate their owners, or to offer fixes, if regulators approve. Moreover, VW has also agreed to compensate US VW brand dealers with $1.21 billion, to pay $2.7 billion to ‘offset diesel pollution’, to spend another $2billion on EV promotion and infrastructure, and to pay more than $600 million to 44 US states.
Additionally, the attorneys’ pockets could fill furthermore, as the US regulators and the automaker are still discussing whether the latter should agree to buy back roughly 85,000 VW, Audi and Porsche vehicles, powered by the 3.0-liter diesel engines, which feature the same cheating emissions software and to compensate their owners.
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