A statement was issued by Wolfsburg where it was confirmed that the company has agreed to the huge fine with the US Department of Justice. Furthermore, a part of the settlement agreement includes a guilty plea regarding various US criminal law provisions along with a statement of facts which come by the fines that need to be made.
Every bit of it is linked to the allegations faced by Volkswagen on September 2015, where it was reported that the company craftily doctored the emissions test results with defeat device software. According to the reports, it could tell if the car was in a lab test mode and then cycle to cleaner than normal emission so as to pass local air quality tests.
The latest fines in the US mean that the total cost to Volkswagen will go past 20 billion dollars. The company has set aside 19 billion dollars to deal with the fallout faced from emissions rigging scandal. The huge figures show that the entire scandal is immensely serious. The company has agreed to a 15-billion-dollar compensation settlement with environmental authorities and the owners.
There are also calls for owners in other places of the world, with the UK, to ask for compensation. The call was resisted by Mathias Mueller, the CEO, who wishes to reinvent the company as a digital first in the EV pioneer segment. From the looks of it, the sorry tale is yet to reach its end.
Stay tuned for more updates on Volkswagen diesel gate scandal!