The German car giant Volkswagen agreed to pay up to US $ 14,700 million in the United States to try to close the litigation following the spectacular scandal for its diesel engines, which brought down sales and dented its reputation.
“This partial commitment marks an important first step for Volkswagen accountable for a violation of its legal obligations and public confidence,” said Sally Yates, an official of the US Department of Justice.
by this plan, the owners of some 480,000 Volkswagen vehicles with diesel engines will be able to resell these cars to the company-or have them repaired entirely.
in any event, each owner you can also receive cash compensation that could reach US $ 10,000.
the value of those vehicles to be repurchased would be September, before the outbreak of the scandal that began in the United States and spread to other countries.
Just as compensation, the bill would reach US $ 10,033 million.
in addition, you must add another US $ 2,700 million that Volkswagen should pay for ” fully remedy “the greenhouse gas emissions of its cars in the United States.
Separately, the automotive group seeks an agreement for US $ 603 million with 44 US states and the District of Columbia ( where Washington is located) and Puerto Rico.
according to US authorities, the Volkswagen diesel engines emit 40 times more greenhouse gases than permitted levels, although a program installed on these units falsified results measurements of these emissions.
“the commitment announced on the day restores protections Volkswagen has flagrantly violated,” he said at a news conference Gina McCarthy, the federal agency environmental protection.
The automotive giant (which includes brands such as Audi, Volkswagen and Porsche) also committed to contribute about US $ 2,000 million to fund promotion of cars with zero emissions.
This commitment still be submitted for the approval of American justice on July 26, said a spokesman for Volkswagen in the United States.
This would be one of the major agreements reached by a company in the United States after understanding of US $ 246,000 million concluded in 1998 by the industry snuff and agreement by more than 20,000 million with BP before the oil spill of 2010.
step
In a statement, the German group pledged to respect the commitments and said the deal would mark an “important first step”.
“we know we still have much work to do to restore confidence the American public, “admitted the head of the group, Matthias Müller.
In this sense, the analyst Jessica Caldwell estimates that VW” still has a long way to go to repair its reputation. “
However, judicial concerns Volkswagen not come to an end with this in the United States.
in fact, the group is still the verge of being the subject of a criminal investigation and must still answer for the trick engine at about 100,000 vehicles with three liters of displacement and are not covered by the undertaking released Tuesday.
VW admitted introduced tricks to falsify emission results in about 11 million of its cars diesel, and faces a cascade of processes in various parts of the world, especially in Europe.
the scandal cost VW in 2015 its first net loss in 20 years and resulted in the fall of 20% its number of businesses in the first quarter.
However, VW dispute with Toyota still ranked world number one in sales.
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