Bosch, VW V-6 Diesel Settlements Get Preliminary Court Okay

Two new settlements involving Volkswagen AG’s diesel cheating scandal received preliminary approval today in a U.S. District Court in San Francisco.

Judge Charles Breyer granted an initial acceptance for a settlement between VW and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Dept. of Justice and state of California. The $1.2 billion deal made in December includes a fine, recall repairs and customer restitution for about 83,000 of the carmaker’s 3.0-liter V-6 diesels that had been rigged to evade emission laws.

The V-6 settlement assumes VW will buy back older affected models and repair newer ones. But the cost could quadruple if regulators don’t accept VW’s proposed engine modifications and instead order the company to buy back all targeted Audi, Porsche and VW brand vehicles.

Separately, Breyer gave preliminary approval for a $328 million settlement between Robert Bosch GmbH and the Justice Dept. of charges that the company aided VW in the carmaker’s emission test cheating. Bosch, which admits no wrongdoing, supplied diesel engine control software to VW.

The Bosch agreement encompasses the same V-6 diesels covered by the new VW settlement, plus 475,000 4-cylinder VW diesels sold in the U.S. with a different type of so-called testing defeat device.

Breyer says he will hold another hearing on May 11 regarding final approvals for both agreements.