VW agrees $14.7 billion settlement for US drivers following emissions scandal

Volkswagen (VW) has agreed a $14.7 billion settlement with US Federal Regulators, private plaintiffs and 44 US States following the ‘dieselgate’ emissions scandal.

Of the 499,000 2.0L TDI diesel vehicles in the US that were affected by the scandal, around 475,000 are currently in use on US roads. VW has announced that drivers of these vehicles will be eligible for vehicles buybacks, lease terminations or emissions modifications.

The manufacturer will establish a maximum funding pool for $10,033 billion to cover the costs, which assumes 100 per cent of eligible customers choose a buyback or lease termination. Customers who select any of these options will also receive a cash payment from VW.

In addition to this, VW has also agreed pay $2.7 billion over three years into an environmental trust, to remediate excess NOx emissions from 2.0L TDI vehicles. Additionally, the manufacturer will also invest $2.0 billion over a ten year period into zero emissions vehicle infrastructure and awareness initiatives, to promote the use of greener transport technologies.

Matthias Müller, CEO of VW, said: "We take our commitment to make things right very seriously and believe these agreements are a significant step forward.

"We appreciate the constructive engagement of all the parties, and are very grateful to our customers for their continued patience as the settlement approval process moves ahead. We know that we still have a great deal of work to do to earn back the trust of the American people. We are focused on resolving the outstanding issues and building a better company that can shape the future of integrated, sustainable mobility for our customers."

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