Volkswagen to Buy Back Cars, Pay $1 Billion in Emissions-Cheating Case

VOA News
21 April 2016

German automaker Volkswagen is expected to tell a U.S. federal court Thursday how it will compensate the owners of cars it sold with software to illegally get past emissions tests.

The company is facing a civil lawsuit after admitting in September that it included the cheating software in its diesel cars and sport utility vehicles sold since the 2009 model year. Tests showed those cars emitted up to 40 times the permissible pollutants when driven.

The details of Volkswagen's plans have not been completely worked out, including how much each car owner would get. But those briefed on the agreement between the company and U.S. officials say Volkswagen will buy back a certain number of the nearly 600,000 cars involved, and on top of that will make payments to owners totaling more than $1 billion.

A judge had told Volkswagen to present a plan by Thursday, and he could still send the case to trial. The deal does not include plans to repair the cars. That and the cost of the fixes are still being worked out.