EPA, CARB approve VW 3.0-liter diesel SUV fix
That should save Volkswagen a whole boatload of cash.
While Dieselgate is largely over with in terms of Volkswagen 's 2.0-liter diesels, there was still a big question mark hanging over its larger, 3.0-liter diesels. That chapter is now drawing to a close, too.
The US Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board have approved a fix covering approximately 38,000 3.0-liter diesel vehicles, Reuters reports, citing a letter from the EPA that was made public after Reuters' story.
Every penny counts when you've already dumped $25 billion into what turned out to be a very costly mistake.
The fix will cover several affected Volkswagen Group vehicles, including the 2013-2016 Porsche Cayenne and Volkswagen Touareg, as well as the 2013-2015 Audi Q7. VW Group is still waiting to hear whether or not fixes have been approved for 3.0-liter diesel passenger cars.
Some of the models will only require a software patch, while others will require a mix of hardware and software solutions. Volkswagen did not immediately return a request for comment, but it told Reuters it was happy with the approval.
Had Volkswagen's proposed fixes not been approved, the company would have been forced to buy back a large chunk of affected 3.0-liter models, which could add billions of dollars to VW's total Dieselgate bill. Owners who get their vehicles fixed will still receive between $8,500 and $17,000, which is much less than VW would spend to buy back the affected models, some of which were originally sold in the high five-figure range.
Volkswagen has spent about $25 billion cleaning up the mess it made. The company admitted back in 2015 to willfully deceiving federal emissions tests with its vehicles. Its diesel vehicles could curb emissions when they detected a testing environment, but once out on the road, the vehicles would pollute well in excess of federal limits.
