Volkswagen agrees deal to pay $1bn in compensation to car owners

&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpcnt">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpa">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<span class&equals;"wpa-about">Advertisements<&sol;span>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"u top&lowbar;amp">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<amp-ad width&equals;"300" height&equals;"265"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; type&equals;"pubmine"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-siteid&equals;"111265417"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-section&equals;"2">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;amp-ad>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div><p>Volkswagen&comma; the US government and private lawyers have reached a deal for the car maker to buy back some of the nearly 600&comma;000 diesel cars that cheat on emissions tests and stump up more than US&dollar;1bn to compensate owners&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The &&num;8220&semi;deal in principle&&num;8221&semi; includes a maximum amount of spending&comma; but the final details&comma; such as how much each owner would get&comma; are still being worked out&comma; according to a source briefed on the matter&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Some owners would get a choice of having VW repair their cars or buy them back&comma; but that would vary by model year and engine type&comma; the person said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The deal is likely to be part of a bigger payment package from VW and it does not yet include plans on how to repair the cars&comma; which can spew out harmful nitrogen oxide at 40 times the allowable limit&comma; the source said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The agreement is likely to be announced during a federal court hearing in San Francisco on Thursday&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;They&&num;8217&semi;ve agreed on a maximum amount of money&comma; over one billion dollars&&num;8221&semi; for compensation&comma; said the person&period; &&num;8220&semi;How it&&num;8217&semi;s allocated and distributed&comma; that remains to be seen&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It means US owners will probably not yet find out how their cars will be fixed&comma; nor will they know exactly how much they will receive in compensation&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;With &dollar;1bn to spend&comma; it works out to about &dollar;1&comma;700 per car&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But some owners of newer models who have just a software fix may receive little&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;About 325&comma;000 owners of older cars that require more extensive repairs will peobeblt receive more because the repairs could affect mileage and performance&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>At the court hearing&comma; Senior US District Court judge Charles Breyer will also discuss a schedule for depositions and information exchange between all sides in the case&period; He could even set a trial date if he is dissatisfied with the agreement&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Representatives for Volkswagen&comma; the lawyers&comma; and the government declined to comment yesterday&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Wyn Hornbuckle&comma; a spokesman for the US Justice Department&comma; which has sued Volkswagen&comma; said officials would wait until the hearing before speaking&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>John Gersten&comma; a spokesman for a legal firm representing hundreds of Volkswagen owners&comma; said a confidentiality order barred it from making any comment&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The owners filed dozens of lawsuits against VW after it acknowledged in September that it intentionally defeated emissions tests and put dirty vehicles on the road&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The cheating allowed cars to pass laboratory emissions tests while polluting on real roads&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Volkswagen told its shareholders last year it had set aside &dollar;7&period;3bn to help defray the potential costs of a recall or regulatory penalties but most outside observers have said that figure is probably far too low&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The company faces as much as 20 billion dollars &lpar;£14bn&rpar; in fines for Clean Air Act breaches alone&comma; before paying to fix the cars or compensate their owners&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Judge Breyer has told the lawyers to come up with repair and compensation plans before Thursday&&num;8217&semi;s hearing or face a trial&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He wants to know the timing of any fixes and any planned payments to owners&comma; among other details&period; It was unclear if the plans would satisfy his request&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Lawyers for the owners have said in court papers that if there is no deal&comma; they want an urgent hearing or a trial before the judge to get an order for &&num;8220&semi;equitable relief&&num;8221&semi; that would begin in July&comma; or a full trial that would include punitive damages against VW in the same time frame&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Volkswagen says in documents that it does not believe a hearing or trial is appropriate&comma; apparently because progress is being made on a fix and compensation&period; A solution could be revealed at Thursday&&num;8217&semi;s hearing&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The first item on Thursday&&num;8217&semi;s agenda is a report on the status of fixing the cars and &&num;8220&semi;related discussions&&num;8221&semi;&period; It also includes a request to add the Federal Trade Commission to the case&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The FTC has sued VW alleging deceptive advertising&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The owners&&num;8217&semi; lawyers are also seeking documents that Volkswagen provided to the law firm Jones Day&comma; which the company has hired to investigate how the cheating happened&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>California Air Resources Board enforcement chief Todd Sax said last month he did not think it was technically feasible to repair any of VW&&num;8217&semi;s two-litre diesel engines&comma; under the bonnets of most of the models at issue&comma; to meet that state&&num;8217&semi;s stringent clean air rules&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Judge Breyer said in March that former FBI director Robert Mueller told him Volkswagen&comma; government regulators and lawyers for car owners had made substantial progress towards a resolution that would get the polluting cars off the road&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The judge had appointed Mr Mueller to oversee settlement talks&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Meanwhile Japanese car maker Mitsubishi&comma; tarnished by a massive recall cover-up 15 years ago&comma; owned up to another scandal yesterday&comma; saying employees had intentionally falsified fuel mileage data for several vehicle models&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The inaccurate tests by the Tokyo-based company involved 157&comma;000 of its own-brand eK wagon and eK Space passenger cars and 468&comma;000 Dayz and Dayz Roox vehicles produced for Nissan&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The models are all so-called &&num;8220&semi;mini-cars&&num;8221&semi; with tiny engines whose main attraction is generally great mileage&period; They were produced from March 2013&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div style&equals;"padding-bottom&colon;15px&semi;" class&equals;"wordads-tag" data-slot-type&equals;"belowpost">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div id&equals;"atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68ed2c65b1508">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<script type&equals;"text&sol;javascript">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;getAdSnippetCallback &equals; function &lpar;&rpar; &lbrace;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;if &lpar; false &equals;&equals;&equals; 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