Judge Charles Breyer grants preliminary approval to Volkswagen, Bosch settlements

A federal judge on Tuesday gave initial approval to a plan for Volkswagen to pay at least $1.22 billion to repair or buy back almost 80,000 polluting 3.0-liter diesel automobiles in the United States over the Volkswagen emissions scandal.

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco likewise agreed at a court hearing to approve preliminary approval to German auto provider Robert Bosch GmbH‘s different settlement to pay $327.5 million to U.S. diesel Volkswagen owners.

Volkswagen could be required to pay up to $4.04 billion if regulators do not approve repairs for all 3.0 liter Porsche, Audi and VW diesel cars in the settlement. Breyer will hold a May 11 hearing on whether to give final approval.

In overall, the automaker has now consented to invest as much as $25 billion in the United States to resolve claims from owners, environmental regulators, U.S. states and dealerships and to make buyback offers.

Volkswagen is arranged to plead guilty on February 24 in Detroit to 3 felony counts under a plea agreement to solve U.S. charges it set up secret software in automobiles to permit them to give off pollution up to 40 times the legal limit.

Volkswagen formerly accepted to invest approximately $10.03 billion to buy back an estimated of 475,000 polluting 2.0-liter vehicles having software that enabled them to evade emissions rules in testing. The 3.0 liter automobiles have an undeclared auxiliary emissions system that permitted the automobiles to give off as much as 9 times allowed limits.

Volkswagen stated Tuesday that it received claims from 360,000 present and former 2.0-liter owners and has made settlement offers to over 300,000 owners.