Report: Certain Owners in VW Diesel Scandal Could Get Up to $10,000 to Trade Their Cars In
CARS.COM — Tuesday represents a pivotal day in the Volkswagen Group’s ongoing negotiations with regulators over an outcome to its ongoing diesel scandal, but a Bloomberg News report today suggests the automaker may have to spend more than $15 billion to settle lawsuits, pay EPA fines and develop clean-emissions technology. Citing two unnamed sources familiar with the negotiations, Bloomberg reports that car owners will get roughly two-thirds of the total in the form of compensation that covers the pre-scandal value of their diesel (TDI) vehicles plus as much as $10,000 each.
Related: VW Diesel Crisis: Timeline of Events
Negotiators arrived at the latter figure through estimates of how much it would take to get about 85 percent of affected diesel owners to trade their cars in, according to Bloomberg. Those are big increases over news reports last week that indicated the total might be around $10 billion for the automaker with individual compensations topping out around $7,000. A VW spokeswoman declined Cars.com’s request for comment on today’s report.
The scandal affects nearly 600,000 diesel vehicles in the U.S. from Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche in the 2009 to 2016 model years. (All three brands are under the Volkswagen Group.) We’ll report more Tuesday, when a court-mandated filing by regulators and plaintiff groups should give more specifics on the initial buyback agreement announced April 21. Reuters has reported that Tuesday’s announcement will address diesel four-cylinder vehicles but not some 80,000 diesel V-6 cars involved in the scandal.
Check back Tuesday; filings are due at noon Pacific time.
