Apparently, Volkswagen thought compromising 11 million vehicles worldwide — and nearly 600,000 in the United States — as part of its emissions scandal wouldn't cost very much to fix.
USA Today is reporting the embattled automaker said Wednesday that upon initially discovering its emissions crisis, it didn't think the total cost to resolve the issue would be that much — if you can actually believe that.
The publication says VW's admission was part of the company's statement in an attempt to prove that it didn't knowingly commit fraud, as analysts estimate that the company could be facing tens of billions in fines and lawsuits in the United States alone. That doesn't even count VW's total recall cost and regulatory fines and lawsuits that other affected countries and their drivers could impose.
According to USA Today, VW even went as far as to cite an unidentified automaker that paid a $100 million fine in 2014 following violating U.S. emissions laws. Of course, VW wishes it could get out of its crisis with a $100 million check.
"Volkswagen was advised that in the past [U.S. emissions penalties] were not especially high for a company the size of Volkswagen," the company said as part of its statement Wednesday.
It added: "It was expected that the diesel matter could be resolved with the U.S. authorities by disclosing the software modification, agreeing on appropriate measures to restore vehicle compliance with the law and the payments of potential fines in line with prior U.S. settlements."
It's somewhat startling that VW would make this admission and even cite another automaker that faced an emissions violation, considering it still hasn't come to terms with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the California Air Resources Board (CARB), which rejected the company's last proposal for the fix of nearly 600,000 U.S. vehicles just this past January.
What's arguably worse is part of part of Wednesday's statement also had VW disclosing that former CEO Martin Winterkorn knew of the emissions violations before they were revealed to the EPA and CARB last September.
In fact, the emissions issues were discovered by the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) in May 2014, with a memo about the study even sent to Winterkorn on May 23, 2014.
"Whether and to which extent Mr. Winterkorn took notice of this memo at that time is not documented," VW said in the statement.
Winterkorn was again allegedly told about the diesel issues during a July 27, 2015 meeting.
"Concrete details of this meeting have not yet been reconstructed," VW said. "In particular, it is not clear whether these participants understood already at this point in time that the change in the software violated U.S. environmental regulations. Mr. Winterkorn asked for further clarification of the issue."
How much will this emissions scandal — recall, regulatory fines and class-action lawsuits — cost VW when it's all said and done?
