Daimler, VW Agree to Make Hardware Updates on Diesels

Daimler AG and Volkswagen AG have agreed to spend as much as €3,000 ($3,400) per vehicle to retrofit their older diesels in Germany with more effective emission control systems.

The deal was reached on Thursday with Andreas Scheuer, Germany’s transport minister, Reuters reports. Scheuer says the country’s third carmaker, BMW AG, has refused to the hardware plan but does join the others in pledging to spend as much as €3,000 per vehicle for other measures, including a trade-in allowance.

Reuters says the companies favor incentives, which help take higher-polluting cars off the road and replace them with vehicles that are cleaner than retrofitted older models. The news service did not indicate the total value of the retrofit plan or how many vehicles it would cover.