The American courts approved a settlement proposal from Volkswagen surrounding Dieselgate: in total, the German car manufacturer will pay 14.7 billion dollars (nearly 14 billion euro).
10 billion dollars for victims
10 billion dollars (9.2 billion euro) will go towards the 475,000 consumers, who will all get somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 dollars (4,600 to 9,200 euro). These consumers can also sell their car for its worth in Septemer 2015, right before the fraud came to light. The remaining sum will be used to develop emission-free vehicles and programs to help limit greenhouse gas emissions.
Previously, Volkswagen paid nearly 2 billion dollars to car dealers and states across the United States and it still faces a settlement with the three-liter diesel owners of which there are still 85,000 in the country. On top of that, fines and trials from shareholders may still surface and that is only talking about the things in the United States.
The German car company is definitely not liberated from the Dieselgate’s shackles, which included more than 11 million cars. Each and every one had illegal software to make it seem the cars were more fuel efficient during tests than they actually were. The entire scandal has also hit its consumer base hard and the company will need to rebuild trust for quite some time.
