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The class action of hundreds of thousands of car owners in Germany, which has plagued Volkswagen for a long time, was finally settled by Volkswagen paying 830 million euros (about 6.4 billion yuan).

Volkswagen has reached an agreement with the German consumer group VZBV on the emissions door class action to settle claims from hundreds of thousands of diesel owners, Bloomberg reported. Volkswagen said it had agreed to pay 830 million euros and would make every effort to provide an one-time payment as soon as possible.

Back in 2018, Germany issued a new draft law that allows consumer organizations to file lawsuits on behalf of consumers, thereby freeing consumers from paying high legal costs. In September 2019, more than 400000 German Volkswagen owners signed a class action over cheating on Volkswagen's diesel emissions test, and the German consumer group VZBV filed a complaint with the court demanding that Volkswagen pay the price for its fraud and provide financial compensation.

Earlier this month, negotiations between Volkswagen and the German consumer group VZBV broke down and proposed to skip the German consumer group VZBV to directly compensate diesel car owners. Subsequently, on the recommendation of the German local court, the two sides reopened negotiations in an attempt to reach a settlement.

Now Volkswagen has reached an agreement with the German consumer group VZBV, which means that the class action lawsuit against car owners will soon come to an end. The price is that Volkswagen must pay 830 million euros (about 6.4 billion yuan) in compensation.

Volkswagen agreed to pay 830 million euros as part of the settlement, Volkswagen said in an emailed statement on Friday. Hiltrud Werner, head of legal affairs at Volkswagen, said in a statement that the agreement represented "a fair and verifiable solution" and that the company "will now make every effort to provide an one-time payment as soon as possible."

In September 2015, the Volkswagen emissions cheating scandal was exposed in the United States. Volkswagen admits to controlling the software of some diesel engines to run only during regulatory tests and shutting down during normal driving to evade detection of excessive emissions, but the actual emissions are all 10-14 times higher than the standard.

It is understood that there are about 11 million Volkswagen diesel vehicles equipped with cheating software worldwide, including 8 million in Europe alone, including 2.4 million in Germany. So far, Volkswagen has updated its software for these vehicles.

For a long time, the diesel emission scandal has plagued Volkswagen, suffering from foreign fines and consumer lawsuits, but also let Volkswagen pay a heavy price. So far, the fine and other expenses incurred by Volkswagen due to the emission door have reached 30 billion euros (about 230 billion yuan), and the related losses and compensation are still in progress.

According to the data, Volkswagen Group's global sales reached 10.9746 million vehicles in 2019, an increase of 1.3% over the same period last year, and won the top spot in global sales for four consecutive years. Among them, in the Chinese market, Volkswagen Group's overall sales reached 4.2336 million vehicles, a slight increase of 0.6% over the same period last year, accounting for 38.6% of Volkswagen Group's global sales, making it the largest single market for Volkswagen Group.

Today, Volkswagen is rapidly moving towards electrification, trying to shake off the adverse effects of the diesel scandal. However, the continuous fermentation of the emission gate will still be a long-lasting "nightmare" for the public.

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