The US Environmental Protection Agency is making Volkswagen Group correct fuel economy labels for about 98,000 petrol-powered vehicles. The revisions of about 0.8L/100km cover VWs as well as affiliated brands Audi, Porsche and Bentley. All are from the 2013 to 2017 model years.
The EPA said it investigated the petrol vehicles after finding that VW cheated on diesel emissions in 2015.
The agency and the California Air Resources Board found that transmission software on the petrol vehicles made them shift differently during government lab tests on treadmills so they had lower fuel use and polluted less than when they were on the road.
The software was on about 1 million vehicles, but only 98,000 were found to have higher fuel use than stated on EPA window stickers, according to an EPA statement. VW Group said it also settled lawsuits filed by owners and will reimburse them for understated fuel use. Under the settlement, valued at $US96.5 million ($152 million), owners will get payments ranging from $US5.40 to $US24.30 for each month they have owned or leased the vehicles. Any money that doesn’t go to owners will be used for environmental remediation. Lawyer fees are not included and will be settled later.
Owners will be notified about their rights and options under the settlement, and eventually they will have to submit a claim to be compensated, VW said in a statement. The settlement still needs to be approved by a judge.
In September 2015, the EPA discovered that VW had installed software on nearly 600,000 diesel vehicles that turned pollution controls on during government tests and shut them off while the vehicles were on the road. The company has paid some $US20 billion in fines and civil settlements. It has also pleaded guilty to criminal charges in the United States, and several managers, including former CEO Martin Winterkorn, were charged there.
Winterkorn resigned saying he took responsibility for the fraud, but insisted he personally did nothing wrong.
- AP