VW Offers Buyback Or Cash To U.S. Diesel Owners In Latest Settlement Deal

In the second large consumer settlement related to its diesel emissions scandal, Volkswagen says it will pay around $1.2 billion to help people who bought its vehicles with the larger 3.0-liter diesel engine. The plan includes a buyback as well as a repair program.

The settlement could be approved by May, after hearings this month. The plan would cover nearly 80,000 Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche vehicles that contain what U.S. regulators have called a cheating mechanism, which misreports the amount of toxins the cars normally emit during emissions testing. read more »

Bosch, a Volkswagen Supplier, Agrees to Settle Over Diesel Scandal

When Volkswagen executives decided in 2006 to use software to evade emissions rules, they needed help. No one inside Volkswagen knew how to write the software.

So the company turned to one of its most trusted partners: the German supplier, Robert Bosch. Working from Volkswagen specifications,  Bosch developed code that instructed computers in diesel engines to fully deploy pollution controls only when the cars were being tested in laboratories, according to lawsuits in the United States and Germany.

The code would form the basis for the so-called defeat devices, the illegal software installed on 580,000 Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche vehicles in the United States that has forced the carmaker to plead guilty to fraud and pay more than $20 billion in fines and settlements.

The involvement of Bosch, one of the world’s largest auto suppliers, underscores the broad nature of the diesel deception, which stretched beyond the carmaker and involved dozens if not hundreds of people for nearly a decade. Bosch, on Wednesday, agreed to pay consumers in the United States $327.5 million as compensation for its role in devising the software. read more »

Tesla S Falls Short of Luxury Rivals on Tougher Safety Test

Tesla has long promoted its cars as among the safest available. After its Model S electric sedan was reviewed by the federal government’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in 2013, Tesla said it had received the best safety rating of any car ever tested.

But a more rigorous safety review has reached a different conclusion: that the Tesla S is not on a par with several of its luxury rivals.

On Wednesday, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a group known for its strict testing, announced that the Tesla S did not receive either of its safety awards. That was, in part, because in one of five crash tests the dummy’s head hit the steering wheel. read more »