Volkswagen has reached a settlement in principle with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, California regulators,\u00a0California attorney general’s office and consumers over a plan\u00a0to fix or buy back nearly half a million vehicles that violated emissions standards.<\/p>\n
The deal includes “substantial compensation” for owners of cars powered by two-liter “clean\u00a0diesel” engines\u00a0that were fitted with software to cheat emissions tests, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer said in a hearing from a\u00a0courtroom in San Francisco.<\/p>\n
The accord could finally bring about a solution to a crisis that has bedeviled Volkswagen engineers, who have been unable to deliver a fix that was acceptable to the EPA.<\/p>\n
Former FBI director Robert Mueller, who was appointed to pursue a settlement, had reached an agreement with all the major parties on a fix for vehicles and a plan to pay vehicle owners.<\/p>\n
Volkswagen will also be required to invest funds to “promote green automotive” initiatives, the judge said.<\/p>\n
The agreement helps Volkswagen avoid a trial over the emissions violations and economic losses to consumers, which Breyer had threatened to schedule if VW did not meet Thursday’s deadline to reach an agreement.<\/p>\n
Attorneys for the U.S. government, state regulators and consumers worked 14 hours a day, seven days a week since a\u00a0March 24 hearing to reach a deal, the judge said.<\/p>\n
To be sure, the agreement is far from the end for Volkswagen’s emissions scandal. For starters, the Justice Department is conducting a criminal investigation into Volkswagen’s intentional evasion of emissions standards, which was first exposed by the EPA and California Air Resources Board\u00a0in September.<\/p>\n
The company is also facing several investigations in Germany, its headquarters,\u00a0where it has much larger sales.<\/p>\n
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Volkswagen has reached a settlement in principle with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, California regulators,\u00a0California attorney general’s office and consumers over a plan\u00a0to fix or buy back nearly half a million vehicles that violated emissions standards. The deal includes “substantial … Continue reading