Volkswagen will begin buying back vehicles caught up in its emission fraud scandal in mid-November after a federal judge approved the company’s $15 billion settlement with the federal government Tuesday.
U.S. District Court of San Francisco Judge Charles Breyer approved the $15 billion settlement Tuesday morning. The record settlement includes the German automaker buying back the 482,000 vehicles that had software installed allowing them to skirt emission tests.
Consumers can let the company fix the vehicles for free, when a fix is available, or sell their car back to the company. The buybacks range from $12,475 to $44,176, USA Today reported.
The vehicles contained “defeat devices” that allowed the vehicles to pass emissions tests, but the software would switch to a normal mode when tests were done, allowing the cars to spew about 40 times the legal limit of nitrogen into the atmosphere.
Volkswagen equipped its 2.0-liter and 3.0-liter clean diesel vehicles with the rigged software. About 585,000 vehicles in the U.S. and 11 million vehicles around the world have the software.
The report indicated VW is still negotiating a settlement for customers with vehicles not covered by the settlement.
Nitrogen pollution can cause smog and release fine particulate matter into the air. Those pollutants are linked to asthma and other respiratory illnesses that can cause premature death. Children, the elderly and people with pre-existing conditions see increased risk when they are exposed to the pollutants, the EPA says.
The scandal forced top company officials to resign and led to a drop in sales for the German automaker.
