Automobile manufacturer Volkswagen has been buried in a huge story of the company cheating on their emissions testing of their diesel cars. VW has agreed to pay U.S. owners and regulators, over $15 billion as a settlement in the case.
According to Reuters, Under Volkswagen’s proposed settlement of U.S. civil claims published on Tuesday, the German group has pledged to compensate 475,000 owners of VW diesel-powered cars there, giving them the option to sell their vehicles back to VW or have them fixed. Most U.S. owners will get $5,100 to $10,000, based on the pre-scandal value of their vehicles, but spending on buybacks could be much less if owners opt for repairs instead.
The process for the automotive giant to recover from this scandal will be lengthy and extremely costly.To go along with the $15 billion going to consumers, there is also a pending $45 billion penalty to be handed down by the Environmental Protection Agency. It has also been proposed that VW pay out settlements to their European customers as well, which according to Bloomberg could be an additional $43 billion.
It will be interesting to see how long this issue drags on for. There are a lot of moving parts, and people involved. Another thing to keep an eye on is how Volkswagen can move on from something like this, as well as how their sales numbers look moving forward.