VW Resumes U.S. Diesel Sales After Emissions Scandal
Volkswagen AG said in early-May it resumed selling diesel cars in the United States in April, and that they accounted for nearly 12 percent of its April sales, a sign consumer demand for such cars had not been dampened by its emissions scandal. The world's largest automaker by sales was barred by U.S. authorities in September 2015 from selling about 11,000 new 2015 diesel Golf, Beetle, and Passat cars after the German automaker admitted to using secret software to exceed emission limits for six years.
VW reached a $4.3 billion settlement with the U.S. Justice Department in January, agreed to spend up to $25 billion to address claims from U.S. owners, environmental regulators, states, and dealers, and offered to buy back about 500,000 polluting U.S. vehicles.
In April, a judge in Detroit sentenced VW to three years' probation and independent oversight in a plea agreement. Volkswagen resumed sales of the new 2015 diesel vehicles in mid-April, Spokeswoman Jeannine Ginivan said, after the automaker won approval for a fix earlier this year. Ginivan said that VW sold 3,196 diesel cars in the United States in April. Overall VW brand U.S. sales rose 1.6 percent last month to 27,557, while industry-wide U.S. sales fell 4.7 percent in April.
Before the scandal, diesel vehicles accounted for about 25 percent of VW brand U.S. sales.
In January, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and California Air Resources Board approved a fix for 67,000 of the 475,000 2015 VW 2.0-liter diesel models known as "Generation Three." EPA and California are expected to approve additional diesel fixes in the coming weeks, three people briefed on the matter said. They requested anonymity because the approval has not been finalized.
VW said in April it bought back nearly 238,000 and repaired 6,200 of the vehicles. VW has not yet begun to resell the repurchased cars.
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