Volkswagen agrees to repair and buy back more polluting U.S. diesel automobiles

Volkswagen has accepted a $1 billion settlement to fix or repair another 80,000 contaminating diesel vehicles sold in the United States as the German company on Tuesday took new actions to put its emissions cheating scandal behind it.

The settlement deal covered high-end Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche vehicles having 3.0-liter engines, indicating Volkswagen has now accepted to spend as much as $17.5 billion in the United States to deal with claims from owners in addition to federal and state regulators over polluting diesel cars.

The world’s second biggest automaker still faces the possibility of costs billions of dollars more to solve a U.S. Justice Department criminal investigation and federal and state environmental claims, along with oversight by a federal monitor.

The new arrangement, settling part of litigation brought against Volkswagen by federal and California regulators, “is another essential step forward in our efforts to make things right for our customers,” Hinrich Woebcken, president and CEO of Volkswagen Group of America stated.

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer revealed the settlement during a hearing in San Francisco.

Volkswagen also accepted to enhance electric car efforts in California and faces additional costs as it works to complete an agreement to offer what Breyer called “substantial compensation” to the owners of the 3.0-liter automobiles.

Breyer in October authorized Volkswagen’s earlier settlement worth around $15 billion with regulators and the U.S. owners of 475,000 contaminating diesel automobiles with smaller 2.0-liter engines, consisting of an offer to buy back all of the vehicles.