The check is in the mail. Well, not quite. But Kenneth Feinberg, the specialist whom Volkswagen has hired to put together a compensation package for U.S. owners of about 600,000 diesel-powered vehicles, says he expects to be eventually making some very generous payments.
But the timing is up in the air, Feinberg tells the German newspaper the Frankfurter Allgemeine, until VW can first come to an agreement to move forward with repairs for those vehicles – which were equipped with so-called “defeat devices” meant to cheat on diesel emissions tests.
“My hands are tied as long as VW and the authorities have not overcome their differences,” Feinberg says.
The crisis was set in motion last September when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency revealed that VW had used hidden software capable of detecting when one of its 2.0-liter turbodiesel vehicles was being subject to emissions tests. Otherwise, the vehicles would far exceed American nitrous oxide standards. VW quickly confirmed the so-called defeat device was used in about 500,000 vehicles sold in the U.S., and then reported cheating with its 3.0-liter diesel models, as well.
The German carmaker also revealed it had installed the software in a total of about 11 million diesel models sold worldwide. It began fixing products sold outside the U.S. in January, but its first proposed fix for vehicles sold in the States was rejected by the EPA last month. Another proposal was submitted to the agency last week by VW’s luxury subsidiary Audi.
Separately, the maker last month hired compensation specialist Ken Feinberg to set up a program to recompense U.S. owners impacted by the crisis. Feinberg recently wrapped up a similar program set up by General Motors for victims of its ignition switch crashes. Feinberg also handled compensation programs for the 9/11 terrorist attacks and BP’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
He has not yet said how he planned to handle the Volkswagen fund but indicated that the automaker had granted him complete autonomy in determining how much owners should receive in compensation.
VW is expected to give those owners the choice of accepting a settlement or going to court. More than 450 lawsuits have so far been filed against the automaker by diesel owners, an inter-judicial panel recently deciding to have those cases consolidated before a federal court in San Francisco.
Read more of the original article in The Detroit Bureau
