TIL Desk/Business/San Francisco-Volkswagen would repair or buy back polluting vehicles and pay each owner as much as USD 10,000 under a USD 14.7 billion deal the car maker has reached to settle lawsuits stemming from its emissions cheating scandal, a person briefed on the settlement talks said.
The deal sets aside USD 10 billion to repair or buy back roughly 475,000 polluting Volkswagen vehicles with 2-litre diesel engines, and to compensate each owner with an additional payment of between USD 5,100 and USD 10,000, the person said. The person asked not to be identified because the deal will not be filed in court until today, and a judge has ordered attorneys not to talk about it before then.
Owners who pick the buybacks would get the clean trade-in value of their cars from before the scandal became public on September 18, 2015. The average value of a VW diesel has dropped 19 per cent since just before the scandal began. In August of 2015, the average was USD 13,196, and this May it was USD 10,674, according to Kelley Blue Book. The settlement still requires a judge’s approval before it can go into effect.
