Sorry, European Volkswagen Owners - You Won't Get a U.S.-Style Payout
After agreeing to fork over up to $14.7 billion to U.S. owners (and the environment) in its U.S. diesel emissions scandal settlement, Volkswagen is saying Nein! to a similar buyback in Europe, because that kind of payout would just be insane.
According to Left Lane News, the embattled automaker isn’t planning any compensation to its clients on the Continent, meaning its 2.0-liter TDI models will go on well into the future, albeit in a slightly detuned form.
The process of solving Volkswagen’s diesel woes is more advanced in the U.S. than overseas, where 8.5 million of its 11 million defeat device-equipped models were sold. Not only are there more models to recall and fix, the laws are different.
Elzbieta Bienkowska, the European Union’s industry commissioner, recently stated that it wouldn’t be fair for European owners to miss out on a U.S.-style deal, but Volkswagen says it just isn’t possible to offer one.
In a June 30 meeting with the commission, CEO Matthias Müller replied to Bienkowska’s comment, stating, “You don’t have to be a mathematician to realize that compensation at arbitrarily high levels would overwhelm Volkswagen.”
Under the U.S. settlement, owners will have their 2.0-liter TDIs bought back at pre-scandal values, and will receive cash compensation of up to $10,000. Emissions requirements in the EU aren’t as strict as those mandated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, so a diesel Eurofix doesn’t have to be as complicated or as costly.
After a delay earlier this year, the slow, phased recall of afflicted models continues in Europe. American owners will start getting their buyback notices as early as this fall.
[Image: © 2015 Mark Stevenson/The Truth About Cars]
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Volkswagen gets a break here because there's not a unified emission standard. If the EU standards were as strict as the EPA's, they'd be in a world of hurt.
I wonder how "pre-scandal value" will be calculated?
Hold on to your EPA. I know that it receives a lot of criticism particularly from Republicans like Trump and Ryan. But just think about it. It manages to combine [1] an interesting business model and [2] a way to reduce emissions. For the very same reasons we poor Europeans are not entitled to any compensation - because of poor testing methods making the EU responsible - you Americans do receive compensation, and more.
And now that Great Britain is leaving the European Union, they can negotiate their own settlement with VW... which is very unlikely to be better than what everyone else in Europe gets.