VW CEO Again Rejects U.S.-Style Diesel Settlement in Europe

Volkswagen AG CEO Matthias Mueller says compensating owners of its cheater diesels in Europe as it has agreed to do in the U.S. would be “inappropriate” and vastly too expensive.

“You don’t have to be a mathematician to realize” U.S.-style compensation “would overwhelm VW,” he tells German newspaper Welt am Sonntag.

Last month VW agreed to spend $15 billion (€13.4 billion) in buybacks, repairs and environmental remediation programs for 475,000 diesel-powered vehicles the company rigged to evade emission laws and then sold in the U.S. The settlement total includes separate compensation payments to owners averaging $5,100 (€4,600) each.

Applying the same proportion of spending to fix nearly 18 times as many similarly rigged VW diesels in Europe would result in a cost of more than €240 billion ($268 billion). Simply paying each owner $5,100 as VW will do in the U.S. would cost €39.1 billion.

But Mueller argues that VW is using a series of recalls to successfully bringing its 8.5 million doctored diesels in Europe into compliance with the region’s less stringent emission standards. He contends that additional compensation isn’t necessary for European customers because, unlike in the U.S., regulators haven’t demanded that VW buy back most of the car the cars instead.