Volkswagen to not buy back cars in India: Diesel Gate

Volkswagen will not buy back cars from customers in India as a part of the Diesel Gate emission scandal.

As Volkswagen faces a lawsuit from the from the U.S. Justice Department, the company is being sued for upto $48 billion for allegedly violating U.S. Environmental laws as a part of the 'Diesel Gate' emission scandal.

As a result of that, Volkswagen might have to buy back 115,000 cars in U.S. to rectify the situation. Volkswagen might be left with two choices, wither buy back the cars with full refund of a fifth of the affected cars or offer a brand new one with a significant discount.

As reported by Sueddeutsche Zeitung a German Daily newspaper, Volkswagen expects the older vehicles to require major refits which will accumulate in costs of parts and require to stay in the garage for a long period of time as exhaust parts will need to be reconstructed and approved.

However, according to reports, Volkswagen India will not be buying back vehicles from the VW, SKoda or Audi brands from Indian customers for two reasons. First being that Volkswagen India had earlier stated that their cars in India were not fitted with the 'Defeat Device' to pass the emission norms in India. And secondly, for the fact that all the cars of from the three brands do not violate existing BS-IV emission norms of the counrty.

Late 2015, post the scandal had come to light, Volkswagen India had issued a relevant statement, on what the company will do in India, which stated “The 2.0-litre engines will get a software update. In the 1.5-litre and 1.6-litre engines, a ‘flow transformer’ will be fitted in front of the air mass sensor. In addition, a software update will also be performed on these engines. The measure for the 1.2-litre engines will be announced shortly,”

The company has not yet issued a specific timeline on when these changes and recalls will begin, except for the fact that it will process and implement the changes from the first quarter of 2016.

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