VW to take $2.9 billion charge over diesel retrofit costs
BERLIN — Volkswagen says it expects to take charges of about 2.5 billion euros ($2.9 billion) in the third quarter to cover the costs of buying back and retrofitting diesel cars in North America.
The German automaker said Friday that it is increasing provisions for a buyback and retrofitting program for 2-litre TDI vehicles that was part of settlements over its diesel emissions scandal. It said that the program “is proving to be far more technically complex and time consuming.”
The company has been under a cloud since 2015 over its equipping of diesel cars with illegal software that enabled cheating on U.S. emissions tests. Volkswagen has agreed to more than $20 billion in fines and civil settlements over the scandal, and it may have additional problems on the horizon in the U.S.
German weekly Der Spiegel reported Friday that VW could face further scrutiny because it failed to properly inform U.S. regulators about changes to emissions control software in nearly one-half million cars with gas engines.