Volkswagen is prepared to support hardware retrofits for older diesel vehicles and provide incentives for drivers to swap some older diesel vehicles for recent ones, a person knowledgeable with the matter stated on Thursday.
VW Chief Executive Herbert Diess vowed to support a solution to help fund installing more effective exhaust filters during a discussion with German Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer on Wednesday, Germany’s Spiegel Online noted.
The agreement comes as the German government is due to hold a diesel summit on Friday with Scheuer.
Volkswagen has declined a proposal that automakers should purchase back older diesel vehicles, the person further stated.
The automaker agreed to fit older diesel vehicles with more sophisticated catalytic converters, reversing its stance and bowing to political pressure which mounted in the three years following emissions cheating scandal, Spiegel Online noted.
German cities have been sued by environmental groups for frequently flouting European clean air rules, a step that has resulted courts to propose banning of older diesel vehicles as a way to curb pollution from particulate matter and nitrogen oxides.
Automakers are now scrambling to avert outright banks of diesel automobiles.
