In the latest turn of events in the Volkswagen’s diesel-gate controversy, the German car-maker will reportedly offer to buy back almost 500,000 diesel cars that were equipped with the software to evade U.S. emission norms. News agency Reuters reports that will make an offer to buy back up to 500,000 2.0-liter diesel vehicles sold in the United States. The buyback will include the Jetta sedan, Golf compact and Audi A3 sold since 2009.
However, this buyback does not apply to the bigger, 80,000 3.0-liter diesel vehicles such as Audi and Porsche SUV that also exceeded pollution norms. This massive buyback will reportedly set back the car maker by a billion dollars, however, it is still unclear how much money will an individual owner receive.
The Dieselgate controversy involves the Volkswagen Group, who’re reportedly looking at fines of up to $18 billion for violating US diesel emission norms since 2009, for rigging their “clean diesel” cars with a software that turned on full pollution controls only when the car was undergoing official emissions testing.
The “defeat device”, an algorithm, according to estimations, pollute 10 to 40 times the legal limits during normal driving. It is also estimated that more than 11 million vehicles have been affected worldwide, five million in United States alone. There is still no confirmation from Volkswagen about a buyback but according to the latest report by Reuters, the car-maker is expected to come out with an official announcement very soon.
Source: Reuters