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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
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Judge Wants Details on VW’s 3-Liter Engine Fix

SAN FRANCISCO (CN) — Volkswagen must update the court on plans to fix 85,000 vehicles with 3-liter diesel engines by Aug. 25, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

Earlier this week, the German automaker reached a landmark $14.7 billion deal to buy back or modify 482,000 vehicles with 2-liter diesel engines that emit up to 40 times more pollution than allowed on the road.

The deal includes $10 billion for buy-backs and repairs along with $4.7 billion to invest in air quality mitigation programs and green vehicle technology.

Volkswagen attorney Robert Giuffra said the automaker is still working on a fix for about 85,000 Audi, Porsche and Volkswagen model vehicles that use 3.0-liter turbo diesel V6 engines.

The use of control devices in 3-liter engine models was uncovered this past November, two months after the Environmental Protection Agency first cited Volkswagen for installing emissions test cheating software in its 2-liter diesel engine vehicles.

Volkswagen initially denied that it had deliberately installed software in the 3-liter engine vehicles to hide excess emissions.

"The company believes it can fix the 3-liter vehicles to the standard by which those cars were first certified," Giuffra said during a status conference Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer asked the attorneys to update ex-FBI Director Robert Mueller, the court-appointed "settlement master" for the negotiations, on their progress in reaching a deal to bring the 3-liter engine vehicles up to par.

Volkwsagen was working on a fix for 3-liter engine cars that involves a software upgrade and possibly a new catalytic converter, Bloomberg News reported in May.

Giuffra also told the judge that Volkswagen had finalized settlement deals with 44 states and Washington D.C.

The company negotiated separate settlement deals with Texas and California, the attorney said.

Breyer urged Volkswagen to continue working to finalize deals with all the remaining states.

"I think the goal is to leave no state behind, whether they are big states or little states," Breyer said.

The judge also cautioned attorneys not to leak details of settlement negotiations to the press, given that several news outlets reported details of the agreement before it was filed with the court earlier this week.

A hearing to grant preliminary approval for the $14.7 billion settlement deal is scheduled for July 26 in San Francisco.

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