U.S. and California regulators have approved a repair for about 38,000 Volkswagen 3.0-liter vehicles with possible excess emissions, a decision that could save the car manufacturer over $1 billion, as per a letter revealed on Monday.
The approval indicates the automaker will not need to buy back luxury 2013-2016 model-year diesel Porsche Cayenne, Volkswagen Touareg and 2013-2015 Audi Q7 sport utility vehicles. Under a settlement authorized by U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in May, Volkswagen would have been required to offer to buy back the vehicles if it had not won government approval for a repair.
In the May settlement, the automaker had accepted to spend a minimum of $1.22 billion to repair or buy back almost 80,000 vehicles with 3.0-liter engines. As part of that settlement, Volkswagen agreed to pay owners of vehicles who acquire fixes between $8,500 and $17,000.
Volkswagen, the best-selling automaker globally in last year, could have been required to pay up to $4.04 billion if the United States Environmental Protection Agency and California Air Resources Board could not authorize fixes for all 3.0-liter automobiles.
Some models will require hardware and software fixes, where as newer models will get only a software upgrade.
The company is still waiting for approval for fixes for 3.0-liter diesel passenger cars. The company formerly accepted to buy back about 20,000 older 3.0-liter diesel vehicles.
Volkswagen stated it was happy with approval and added it is dealing with regulators to develop fixes for other 3.0-liter automobiles as soon as possible.
