Volkswagen Cleared to Fix 3.0-Liter Diesel SUVs

Today, regulators approved Volkswagen’s fix for SUVs with 3.0-liter diesel engines. The approval affects around 38,000 vehicles in the U.S.

The 2015 Audi Q5, along with the 2013-2014 Volkswagen Touareg and Porsche Cayenne, will require software updates. Model-year 2015-2016 Touaregs and Cayennes will need both hardware and software changes to make them compliant with emissions regulations.

Back in May, a federal judge asked Volkswagen to pay $1.22 billion to remedy the polluting 3.0-liter diesels. If regulators hadn’t approved the fix, VW would have had to buy back the vehicles. This is chump change compared to the $10 billion VW has to pay for affected 2.0-liter diesels, not including $4.7 billion for environmental and other programs. An estimated 80,000 vehicles are equipped with VW’s offending 3.0-liter diesels, while a whopping 475,000 have the 2.0-liter diesel engines.

There are still 40,000 vehicles with the 3.0-liter diesel engine for which the government has not yet approved a repair. VW had a fix in mind for 2012-2014 Passat diesels with manual transmissions, but regulators rejected the proposal in September.

So far, eight VW execs have been indicted in the U.S. due to their suspected roles in the dieselgate scandal. Two have plead guilty.

Despite some reports to the contrary, VW seems in no rush to sell assets to pay for dieselgate. Speaking with Reuters recently, Volkswagen’s head of strategy, Thomas Sedran, said the company is focused on expanding rather than contracting its lineup. The automaker is gearing up to launch a host of new electric vehicles, for example, including a hatch, crossover, and new Microbus.

Source: Bloomberg, Reuters (1,2)

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