Volkswagen Agrees to Nearly $15 Billion 2.0L TDI Settlement

The department of Justice and Volkswagen today announced that they have agreed to a settlement that could amount to up to $14.7 billion. The settlement will be presented to Judge Charles R. Breyer who will decide on whether or not to approve the agreement in the coming months.

The agreement includes a maximum of $10.033 billion for buybacks for the 475,000 2.0L diesels from model years 2009-2015 in use in the USA. It also includes a $2.7 billion environmental trust and an investment of $2 billion in brand-neutral zero emissions vehicle initiatives.

Volkswagen will offer to buy back TDI vehicles at their pre-September-2015 (when the scandal broke) values and will, according to an autonews.com report, also offer to pay between $5,000 and $10,000 to owners. After/if the agreement gets preliminary then final approval from Judge Breyer—which isn’t expected to happen until October—the buybacks will begin.

If Volkswagen can come up with a way to repair the vehicles that is approved by regulators, then TDI owners can also opt to have their vehicles repaired instead of bought. According to Administrator Gina McCarthy of the EPA who spoke at today’s DOJ press conference, a determination of whether or not a fix is even possible will come in the next six months, and TDI owners will have until about May 2018 to make a decision about what they’d like to do with their cars.

Under the agreement, VW is also required to create a $2.7 billion environmental trust that will aim to replace aging diesel fleets around America, much like the Diesel Emission Reduction Program. A minimum of $6.5 million will go to every state as part of the agreement.

Finally, Volkswagen will invest $2 billion over the next ten years in zero emission vehicle education, infrastructure, and improving access to the vehicles.

“We take our commitment to make things right very seriously and believe these agreements are a significant step forward,” says Matthias Müller, CEO of Volkswagen AG, in a press release. “We appreciate the constructive engagement of all the parties, and are very grateful to our customers for their continued patience as the settlement approval process moves ahead. We know that we still have a great deal of work to do to earn back the trust of the American people. We are focused on resolving the outstanding issues and building a better company that can shape the future of integrated, sustainable mobility for our customers.”

Despite the size of the agreement, the largest ever of its kind, it still falls within the EUR 16.2 billion ($18 billion) exceptional charge that VW announced in its 2015 financial statements, and so the company is able to cover the cost of it.

This is not the end of the road for Volkswagen, though. This agreement covers neither 3.0L vehicles, such as the Touareg and the Porsche Cayenne, nor does it cover criminal investigations that the Department of Justice says are underway.

The Group isn’t out of the woods yet, but this is an important first step in the way forward for both Volkswagen and TDI owners.

The post Volkswagen Agrees to Nearly $15 Billion 2.0L TDI Settlement appeared first on VWVortex.

from VWVortex http://ift.tt/291Bo54
via IFTTT

Waterfest Moves to Atco Dragway

Waterfest 24 will be held at Atco Dragway, in Atco, New Jersey. The summer event will take place at its new venue on July 21 and 22. Long held in Englishtown, New Jersey, the festival has been such a large part of the VW scene that the latest iteration of the Golf even comes with optional “Englishtown” wheels . The new venue, however, is an NHRA drag track a scant 52 miles southwest of Englishtown. The ¼ mile drag track opened in 1960, which makes it the oldest drag strip in New Jersey. The announcement came today on a social media post that announced the new location. Waterfest is North America’s largest VW/Audi show. As many 20,000 people show up for the annual show, making the second largest show in the world—with Worthersee being number one. 2018 will be Waterfest’s 24 th year in existence. The post Waterfest Moves to Atco Dragway appeared first on VWVortex . from VWVortex http://ift.tt/2GQjkuc via IFTTT

Macau Gets Messy with 16-Car Pileup

The Macau Grand Prix is always good for an accident or two or 16— you may remember Audi’s race ending crash last year —and this year’s event didn’t disappoint. It didn’t take long for things to get messy on the tight road circuit. On the opening lap of the qualifying race a 16-car pileup caused the race to be suspended. Things kicked off when Daniel Juncadella hit a wall on the exit of Police bend, one of the tightest parts of the already tight circuit. The following car of Raffaele Marciello was able to avoid the carnage, but Laurens Vanthoor, who was in the upside-down Audi that ended the race last year, could not avoid Juncadella and together they blocked up the road pretty much completely. “I couldn’t see him [Juncadella] at first. Then I saw the car standing still,” Vanthoor told Motorsport. “I tried to brake but it was just understeering and I couldn’t do anything. There’s room for one car there and you’re blind.” Fourteen more cars would eventually crash into the corner c

The First of its Kind: Integrated Engineering Releases Highly-Anticipated IE450T MK6 Golf R Turbo Kit

After two long years of development, the team at Integrated Engineering has finally announced the release of their IE450T kit for the MK6 Golf R. With their turbo kit bolted on right out of the box, the sport AWD hatch is transformed into a 450bhp monster, with hardly any noticeable increase in spool time. In fact, 435 ft-lbs of torque are achieved at all four wheels, at a mere 3300rpm! By now you are probably asking yourself how this is even possible on a 2.0L engine that made nearly half that power from the factory. By employing true twin-scroll technology into the cast turbo manifold and pairing it with a state-of-the-art BorgWarner EFR turbocharger, IE was able to keep spool time at a minimum and bring the fastest-spooling big turbo setup to the market. “We wanted to offer a kit that would dramatically increase the power output without making the car lose its amazing street-friendly drivability,” mentioned one of the IE engineers. We are told the IE450T leaves the car driving jus

Vorderman Volkswagen

Search This Blog