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VW Offers Up to €10,000 in German Diesel Trade-in Plan

Volkswagen AG is offering to pay owners of its oldest diesel cars between €2,000 and €10,000 ($2,400-$11,800) when they trade in their vehicles on new models.
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Volkswagen AG is offering to pay owners of its oldest diesel cars between €2,000 and €10,000 ($2,400-$11,800) when they trade in their vehicles on new models.

The program runs through the end of 2017 and covers the company’s Audi, Porsche and VW brands in Germany. VW says owners can collect as much as €2,380 ($2,800) more by opting to buy an electric, plugin hybrid or natural gas-fueled model.

VW, along with Daimler and BMW, agreed last week to update the pollution control software in about 5.3 million of their diesels in Germany. But they also are supplementing that step, which applies to relatively new Euro 5 and Euro 6 spec models, with trade-in incentive on older vehicles with dirtier Euro 1-Euro 4 diesels.

The carmakers say their software modifications will lower NOx emissions by 25%-30% in newer diesels. But achieving comparable improvements in older engines would require elaborate hardware modifications, thus making scrapping a more economical option.

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