Audi Emissions Cheating

AUDI EMISSIONS CHEATING SETTLEMENT

The court granted preliminary approval of the 3.0-liter settlement on Feb. 16, 2017. The proposed settlement class consists of: a nationwide class who, at any time between Sept. 18, 2015 and Nov. 2, 2015, owned or leased a Volkswagen, Audi or Porsche 3.0-liter TDI vehicle in the United States or its territories or became the owner of an eligible vehicle at the time of participation in the 3.0-liter class action settlement program. This portion of the settlement pertained to all 3.0-liter affected TDI vehicles, model years 2009 through 2016. There were approximately 88,500 3.0-liter class members, according to settlement documents.

Class members sought benefits under the settlement until Sept. 30, 2019, for Generation One vehicles and through April 30, 2020, for Generation Two vehicles. Buyback payments included Vehicle Clean Trade Value (or Vehicle Value) plus Owner Restitution as determined by the settlement. In the settlement’s example case of a 2009 Q7 TDI Premium Plus vehicle, an owner’s total received buyback amount equaled more than $32,000. Lessee restitution ranged from $5,001 to $6,615.

According to court documents, only 593 class members (0.67%) have opted out of the settlement. Moreover, only 32 class members—approximately 0.036% of the class—objected to any aspect of the settlement. These opt-out and objection percentages are even lower than those for the 2.0-liter settlement.

The settlement stipulated that $1.24 billion in monetary benefits would be paid to class members if all Generation Two vehicles achieved timely Emissions Compliant Repair approval without Reduced Performance.

AFFECTED VEHICLES

According to our investigation, affected models are those with 3.0-liter gasoline engines and automatic transmission, including the Audi A6, Audi A8 and Audi Q5, Audi Q7, among many others.

This newly uncovered emissions-cheating device is separate and different from the illegal software in Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche diesel vehicles discovered by regulators in 2015, which turns off diesel emissions controls. The new defeat device is installed in gasoline engines and changes how the transmission operates when testing is detected to lower CO2 emissions, but otherwise allows excessive CO2 emissions in normal, on-road driving.

EMISSIONS-CHEATING DEVICE EXPLAINED

In November 2016, government regulators discovered an emissions-cheating device installed in Audi gasoline vehicles with 3.0-liter engines and automatic transmissions. This new device allowed Audi to conceal the actual level of greenhouse CO2 emissions its cars produce.

According to reports, the emissions-cheating device affects the vehicle's automatic transmission. When the vehicle is in operation, but the steering wheel input does not exceed a 15 degree change in wheel angle, the device senses that the vehicle is being tested in laboratory or smog-check center conditions. The device then changes the way the transmission shifts, decreasing power and acceleration, but causing the engine to produce less carbon dioxide than it does in normal, on-road conditions. When the software detects that the front wheels are turned more than 15 degrees, the emissions-cheating software returns the transmission to its normal operating mode, which increases power and acceleration, but reduces fuel efficiency and increases CO2 greenhouse gas emissions.