Volkswagen may pay diesel owners up to $1250 amid emissions scandal

VW put the number of vehicles affected so far by the carbon emissions issue at 800,000 – including 98,000 petrol-driven cars – but the final figure could turn out much higher.

In the wake of an order to stop selling affected cars, Volkswagen offered to pay dealers $70 per month for each new auto on their lot affected by the stop-sale order, and $50 for certified pre-owned vehicles. Consider it goodwill cash.

It is not clear if the owners would have to relinquish their rates to sue if cash is accepted.

The company said the carbon dioxide problem could cost it 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion), on top of 6.7 billion euros it had already set aside to cover the costs of recalls. The latest revelation is yet another setback for VW, which sank into the deepest scandal in his history over its admission in September that 11 million of its vehicles are equipped with devices aimed at cheating official pollution tests.

But Volkswagen on Sunday broadly confirmed a report in a German newspaper that an engineer at the company had volunteered information about how employees had manipulated tests for carbon-dioxide emissions and fuel economy. However, investigators say the same cars then emitted up to 40 times the permissible pollutants while on the open road.

In November, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency disclosed that the software also affected about 10,000 larger vehicles with three-cylinder engines including those used in upscale sport-utility vehicles built by VW, Audi and Porsche.

“Manufacturers have asked us what the test conditions would be, and we’ve told them that they don’t have a need to know”, Grundler said.

“There is a program in the works with VW, that I do understand” Volkswagen dealer Alan Brown told the Times.

“Volkswagen of America informed its dealers about a planned initiative”, he said, adding that the company would “publish the details about this in the coming week”, according to The Wall Street Journal.

In addition, current owners of Volkswagen vehicles have been offered cash incentives to buy or lease new cars. In the USA, owners could join one of over 200 class-action lawsuits alleging the cars have lost value.

Volkswagen has promised to make changes to cars so they comply with emissions limits.

Cars that have illegal software include diesel Jetta, Golf, Passat and Beetle models that were sold since the model year 2009, as well as the Audi A3 cars.