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Volkswagen Agrees To Record $14.7B Settlement Over Emissions Cheating (cnn.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the time-to-face-the-consequences dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNNMoney: Volkswagen's deliberate cheating on emissions tests will cost it a record $14.7 billion. And that's just the start of its problems. The settlement is only a preliminary step in the case; the automaker still faces possible criminal charges, as well as civil penalties for Clean Air Act violations. The Department of Justice is investigating possible criminal charges against both the company and individuals, said Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates. Up to $10 billion of the funds will be paid out to owners of the 487,000 affected diesel cars in the U.S., sold under the VW or luxury Audi brands. How much an owner gets will depend on whether an owner chooses to fix their car or just have VW buy it back -- they have until May 2018 to decide. Repurchasing the cars will cost VW between $12,500 to $44,000 per car. The $14.7 billion settlement estimate assumes that all the cars are repurchased. Owners who elect to get their vehicles fixed will also get a cash payment of between $5,100 and $10,000 to compensate them for the lost value of the cars, as well as for Volkswagen's deceptive promise of "clean diesel." Most of the buyers paid extra for a car with a diesel engine. In addition to the customer payments, Volkswagen will pay $2.7 billion for environmental cleanup and $2 billion to promote zero-emission vehicles. The clean up money will be used by individual states to cut other diesel emissions by replacing older, government-owned trucks, buses and other diesel engines now in use. Volkswagen is betting big on electric vehicles after this emissions scandal. It plans to deliver 30 electric plug-in models by 2025.

6 of 143 comments (clear)

  1. If no one goes to jail, it means nothing... by FlyHelicopters · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Without people being held to count for this, then it is meaningless...

    The current people who agreed to this are giving away shareholders money, not their money. What does it matter to the CEO who still gets paid, cheat and get rewarded, lied and still get something...

    Large companies will not stop doing these things just because of a fine...

    1. Re:If no one goes to jail, it means nothing... by bloodhawk · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The CEO didn't get squat, he resigned over this scandal last year so he definitely isn't still being paid and by all reports he didn't actually know anything about this but took responsibility for it anyway by resigning. Supposedly he also ensured the investigation into it was kicked off properly before he resigned. Not everything that happens in a company is because the CEO is an evil bastard.

    2. Re:If no one goes to jail, it means nothing... by yoshi_mon · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Cars are not routers. Trucks are not CPUs. I can't run over someone with my overclocked desktop. I can't go at such an unsafe speed that I lose control and crash into others with my modified router.

      Your analogy is wrong. We treat vehicles very differently because of what they can do. "We" the Slashdot crowd that understand that are not opposed to modifying things that can't go at speeds that can kill someone if operated wrongly. "We" instead understand that vehicles are something that need to be well regulated due to their nature.

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      Really, I know what I'm doing...Ohhhh, look at the shiny buttons!
    3. Re:If no one goes to jail, it means nothing... by ichthus · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I can't run over someone with my overclocked desktop. I can't go at such an unsafe speed that I lose control and crash into others with my modified router. Your analogy is wrong. We treat vehicles very differently because of what they can do. "We" the Slashdot crowd that understand that are not opposed to modifying things that can't go at speeds that can kill someone if operated wrongly.

      Have you even been following the story? You do know that this has little to do with the cars being able to run at *cough* dangerous speeds, right? Just checking.

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      sig: sauer
  2. And yet nobody died by jader3rd · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This is talked about as the biggest settlement ever, and it certainly is bad what Volkswagen did, but nobody died because of this. I think there are some messed up priorities in the system.

    1. Re:And yet nobody died by swm · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Actually, people did die.
      Marginal increases in air pollution cause marginal increases in deaths, mainly due to assorted respiratory ailments.
      Just because we don't know who they are doesn't make the victims any less dead.