VW 'Dieselgate' update: Fix deadline extended again, 30+ electrics promised by 2025
Tuesday's deadline for Volkswagen to reach an agreement with federal regulators regarding the company's plans to repair and/or buyback 2.0-liter diesel vehicles in the US has been pushed back again. This, and other news from the German automaker.
A Volkswagen logo is pictured at Volkswagen's headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany (April 22, 2016).
Hannibal Hanschke/Reuters/File
June 21 is the聽: the day that Volkswagen has been ordered to reach an agreement with federal regulators regarding the company's plans to repair and/or buyback 2.0-liter聽diesel vehicles聽in the US.
Or rather, it should've been the big day. Unfortunately for聽482,000 owners of Audi and VW聽cars聽designed to cheat on emissions tests, the deadline has been pushed back--.
That and other news in today's聽听耻辫诲补迟别:
:聽US District Judge Charles Breyer has given Volkswagen an additional week to hammer out the details of its repair/repurchase plan with the聽Environmental聽Protection Agency, California Air Resources Board, Justice Department, and Federal Trade Commission. The plan is now due on June 28 and is rumored to include:
- An option for owners to聽sell their聽diesel聽vehicles back to Audi and VW, if they so choose.
- Plans to聽repair vehicles聽that owners wish to keep.
- Compensation for owners聽of illegally engineered聽diesels, provided they agree not to pursue additional legal action. (Compensation is rumored to be around $5,000.)
- 础听remediation fund聽to address environmental聽damage聽caused by the polluting diesels.
As for the 85,000 3.0-liter Audi, Porsche, and VW diesels that have been聽, there's still no word on a聽plan聽from Volkswagen.
: On September 18, 2015,聽聽that it had installed defeat devices on 2.0-liter diesels in the US, and the automaker launched an internal investigation soon afterward. The week before Volkswagen's admission, though, investigators believe that company employees deleted or hid emissions-related data, some of which could be crucial to the probe.聽
: For years, Volkswagen has run hot and cold on the subject of聽electric聽cars. In 2009, the head of Volkswagen's Audi brand--who now oversees Cadillac--decried the extended-range electric Chevrolet Volt as a "". (Audi has its own electric car program, though it's often been treated like a聽.) A couple of years later, Volkswagen聽聽the EPA's new efficiency guidelines, insisting that its "clean diesel" vehicles were capable of boosting fuel economy and reducing emissions. (Go ahead and laugh: we'll wait.)聽
Shortly after Dieselgate broke,聽聽to focus more attention on聽electric cars, but in May, we learned that the company was聽聽new European regulations that were friendly to EVs. Yesterday, though,聽CEO聽Matthias Muller said that Volkswagen intends to roll out聽30+ electrified vehicles by the year 2025, with the goal of selling up to 3 million of them each year. It's all part of a plan called聽鈥淭ogether: Strategy 2025鈥�, which includes looking into the possibility of ride-sharing investments (a la聽听补苍诲听) and聽聽its components businesses.
Note: for purposes of clarity, "Volkswagen" has been used to refer to the Volkswagen Group parent company, while "VW" has been used to refer to the company's popular mass-market brand of automobiles.
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