Volkswagen AG said it has been approved to repair about 70% of its rigged diesel engines and reached a deal with U.S. regulators to resubmit suspicious software in other vehicles for review.
Matthias Mueller, the company's head, told about 1,000 company executives Monday in Wolfsburg that German automotive regulator KBA has approved a software update for 2.0-liter diesel motors and agreed in principle to a plan for 1.6-liter engines.
The company's shared rose after the announcement, and recently traded up 2.49%.
Separately, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and California Air Resources Board agreed to allow the car producer to seek approval for a revised version of software in 85,000 diesel engines targeted in the latest probe by U.S. regulators, Volkswagen luxury-car division Audi said.
Assuming it’s approved, fixing it should cost around 50 million euros ($53 million).
Both agreements signal a step toward solutions in the scandal Volkswagen is facing on three fronts:
1) cheating software in nearly 11 million vehicles worldwide with 1.2-, 1.6- and 2.0-liter diesel engines;
2) irregular carbon-dioxide
ratings on about 800,000 vehicles;
3) suspicious software in the
larger diesel engines in the U.S.
Stuart Pearson, a London-based analyst with Exane BNP Paribas noted that since the simpler fix approved by the KBA applies throughout Europe, the recall may cost 10 billion euros instead of 16 billion euros.
