Volkswagen’s total bill in the emissions test cheating scandal rose to almost $30 billion on Friday. It said the company will book charges for another $3 billion (approximately Rs 19,500 crore) in the third quarter to cover the cost of buying back affected diesel cars in the United States.
The buyback from North America “is proving to be far more technically complex and time consuming”, the German automaker said. “The complete Interim Report of the Volkswagen Group for the period January-September 2017 will be published on October 27.”
Before Friday, the company had set aside $26.7 billion (around Rs 1.74 lakh crore) to repair or buy back around 4,75,000 polluting Volkswagen vehicles and to compensate each owner with an additional payment of between $5,100 (approximately Rs 3.3 lakh) and $10,000 (more than Rs 6.52 lakh), Reuters reported.
Meanwhile, shares of Volkswagen fell nearly 3% on Friday after the announcement. The stocks of its controlling shareholder, Porsche, also fell over 2.5%.
The German automaker had fitted as many as six lakh cars in the US with a software to fool emissions tests. Investigators said the cars emitted more than 40 times the legal limit of nitrogen oxide.
Emissions discrepancies in Volkswagen cars were first identified in 2014 during a research conducted by the West Virginia University. The case came to light in August 2015 when a company employee defied supervisors and informed US regulators about the software.
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