The Volkswagen Group will have to pay $80 million those affected by a new scandal related to the emissions and fuel costs of their vehicles. Those affected have been customers of Porsche, who bought more “spending” vehicles than the official figures said.
The sanction came last Wednesday after Volkswagen managed to reach an agreement with the plaintiffs, in a conciliation act filed on Wednesday in federal court in San Francisco. These denounced that the consumption of their vehicles and the polluting emissions expelled by their Porsches are significantly higher than the data provided at the time of purchase.
The 80 million dollars that the Volkswagen Group is willing to pay will be distributed in compensation between $250 and $1,109 per vehicle. It is estimated that each of the vehicles travel between one and two miles less for each gallon of fuel consumed. Altogether, there are some 500,000 vehicles affected sold between the years 2005 and 2020.
If we translate that into European figures, for every liter of fuel, the affected Porsches travel between 354.40 and 708.80 meters less than expected. In other words, in a vehicle that approves 10 litres/100 km of consumption, it would be doing between seven and three and a half kilometers less travel. In the worst case, for every 100 kilometers, the vehicle would need about a liter more fuel.
Volkswagen, consumption and emissions
It’s been almost seven years since Dieselgate came to light. A scandal related to the emissions and consumption of diesel vehicles in Volkswagen and Audi that, later, it was learned that it was also extended to other firms of the automobile conglomerate. In Spain alone, almost 700,000 affected vehicles were recorded.
As it became known after the investigations, the Volkswagen Group used software capable of discerning when the vehicle was on a test bench and when it was driving on the road, limiting polluting emissions in the first case and releasing all the capabilities of the engine in the second. .
The result: for six years, its diesel vehicles polluted and consumed more fuel than reflected during the homologation tests. A violation that has been encrypted in more than €30 billion of spending worldwide when legal and vehicle repair costs are added.
However, in addition to using software for the specific purpose of hiding the cheat on their vehicles sold in the United States. Porsche also used longer gear ratios during homologation testing, compared to what was later sold. In this way, the vehicle homologated a lower consumption during the tests and a higher performance already on the street.
The deal has yet to be validated by a judgebut Porsche has already apologized to its customers, saying in an email that “the settlement ensures customers are fairly reimbursed for any reclassification and repairs,” as recoge Bloomberg.
