VW Paying $86 Million Just To California For Dieselgate

2013 Volkswagen Beetle TDI badge (Credit: Volkswagen)

The Dieselgate bills for Volkswagen are just streaming in, now that the company is looking to fix the whole fiasco after months of no action. California alone will be getting an $86 million settlement, and that doesn’t include payouts to residents. Considering a huge number of TDI owners live there, quite a bit of VW’s money is going to the state.

A court will still need to sign off on this deal and the total settlement amount. The deal involves not only the $86 million, but also terms that would make it so VW can’t just turn around and easily cheat everyone again. If approved, it’s the biggest check California has ever received from an automaker for anything.

The money is already burning a hole in California’s pocket and it’s making plans of how to spend it. To help catch future cheaters, the state’s going to sink $10 million into creating technologies that will detect emissions defeat devices, plus innovations that will measure and counteract the negative effects of pollution in the state. Basically, this is notice to other automakers that they need to come clean on any cheats, before they’re caught and raked over the coals.

California’s also getting $1.18 billion of the $14.7 billion settlement money Volkswagen is turning over to the United States federal government. It will be used for developing more zero emissions technologies, plus reversing damage done to the environment.