VW agrees to buy back diesel vehicles, fund clean air efforts

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Politics | Tue Jun 28, 2016 7:33pm EDT

VW agrees to buy back diesel vehicles, fund clean air efforts

WASHINGTON | BY DAVID SHEPARDSON AND JOEL SCHECTMAN

German automaker Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) will pay as much as $15.3 billion after admitting it cheated on U.S. diesel emissions tests for years, agreeing to buy back vehicles from consumers and provide funding that could benefit makers of cleaner technologies.

The largest-ever automotive buyback offer in the United States came in a deal announced on Tuesday by the Justice Department, Federal Trade Commission, Environmental Protection Agency and California state regulators. The proposed consent decree confirmed that VW will set aside $10.033 billion to cover buybacks or fixes for diesel cars and sport utility vehicles that used illegal software to defeat government emissions tests.

VW admitted in September that it installed secret software that allowed U.S. vehicles to emit up to 40 times legally allowable pollution. VW still may face criminal charges and oversight by an independent monitor, a person briefed on the matter said.

A criminal settlement could include measures to ensure VW would not engage in further cheating.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-emissions-settlement-idUSKCN0ZD2S5

[mopinko]

1. i have a question about this whole thing-

if the cars actually use the programming that kicks in on testing, how much performance/emissions difference does it make?
if i really loved my car, and my planet, can i get it programmed to run clean? or would i then hate my car?

[Eugene]

2. This Car and Driver article describes the issues in detail.

Everything You Need to Know about the VW Diesel-Emissions Scandal

http://blog.caranddriver.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-vw-diesel-emissions-scandal/

The main pollutant is nitrogen oxide, which offending vehicles emit at 40X the legal limit.

Some cars can be fixed with software. Others would require retrofitting with expensive
anti-pollution devices (which VW previously said were unnecessary with TDI Clean Diesel).
There may be a performance hit.