Volkswagen has gotten approval to sell up to 67,000 of their 2015 model year diesel vehicles affected by the ongoing emissions scandal, VW spokesperson Jeannine Ginivan told Reuters. The approval comes from the US Environmental Protection Agency and covers US vehicles with the 2.0L TDI engine, but the vehicles will need to have at least some of their emissions issues fixed before they can be sold.
That number includes about 12,000 US cars that are still in dealer inventory. They have been sitting since the stop sale order was issued in September 2015, as part of the VW diesel emissions scandal. The rest are cars in customer hands that will be bought back as part of that program. It's not yet clear when Canadian cars will be able to be sold.
The EPA approved a fix for the cars in January of this year that would bring 2015 2.0L TDI cars like the Jetta, Golf, and Beetle back into emissions compliance, and the fix has been approved for Canadian cars as well. The fix starts with a software patch that is available now. Step two will be new hardware, including new catalysts and a new diesel particulate filter. Those new parts are not expected to be available until next year and will come with an additional software fix. Once the first software patch is installed, the cars can be sold.
In other dieselgate news, Volkswagen announced today that they have reached an agreement with 10 US states to make payments to resolve environmental claims, as well as some consumer claims not included in previous agreements. The payment is for $209 million CAD and goes to Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington state. Those 10 states use California's more strict emissions standards. This is in addition to over $9 billion in penalties, fines, and settlements the company has already agreed to in the US.
