Volkswagen’s bill climbed ever higher when a Californian settlement reached $1.3 billion

The Californian Air Resources Board (CARB) increased the penalty fine for Volkswagen in negotiating the settlement sum for the car maker’s emissions scandal.

CARB increased the amount by over £117 million; pushing the total amount payable to the state to just under £1 billion in British Sterling.

The additional penalty was reportedly added for environmental fines. CARB is entrusted with monitoring air pollution and are taking their role extremely seriously when it comes to enforcing sanctions against VW. The money will not sit in a Californian state bank but invested in environmentally-friendly projects like developing cleaner electric vehicles.

Volkswagen planned to initiate a mass recall and “fix” for some of the affected vehicles in California, but this was promptly rejected by the Golden State as insufficient. The car maker then agreed to buy back affected vehicles, but it’s thought that thousands of customers are still awaiting their turn.

CARB may also be working with VW to figure out whether or not some of the cars can be fixed at all.

Penalties growing

Volkswagen’s penalties and settlement figures in the U.S are climbing higher and higher, yet no further thought has been given to European countries, where most of the toxic vehicles are situated. Of the 11 million vehicles VW has admitted to installing the so-called “defeat devices” in, less than 10% of those are in the U.S. There are around 8 million in Europe, with approximately 1.2 million of those here in the U.K.

CARB’s Chairman, Mary Nichols, reveals that the multi-million fine is “not the end of the end of the story” and simply “closes another chapter” in the scandal.

We must never forget that the Volkswagen emissions scandal will likely have a huge and lasting impact on the health of the entire population, and our environment. Those 11 million affected vehicles have been spewing out NOx pollution at 40 times the legal limit permitted in some cases. Studies have already concluded that thousands of people around the world may have already died prematurely because of the excess pollution in the air.

This is way more than just a scandal affecting the residual values of vehicles; many argue that this is a crime against humanity.

Key offices raided in Germany…

Whilst Volkswagen are busy mitigating their losses in America, authorities and law firms in Europe are busy pursuing VW through the courts; and that’s exactly what we’re doing.

German prosecutors have raided Volkswagen’s key offices in Germany as well as head offices belonging to other large car makers. The VW “dieselgate” scandal has opened a whole can of worms, leaving a number of well-known car makers accused of being complicit in NOx emissions cheating.

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