Slowly -- and I do mean slowly -- Dieselgate is drawing to a close. Volkswagen already has an owner settlement in the works, and now, it's finally arranged a compensation plan for its US dealerships.
Volkswagen will pay out $1.21 billion to its dealerships across the US, Reuters reports. With 652 dealers in the United States, that means each dealership should receive about $1.85 million. Payments will be spread out over 18 months. This settlement was first announced in principle in August.
The settlement touches on some other topics, as well. Volkswagen will still make incentive payments, and it will suspend all requests for capital improvements for two years, which involves requests such as asking a dealership to update its look. The company must also buy back diesel cars that dealerships cannot sell.
While the settlement covers lost profits and other fallout related to Dieselgate, VW's dealers won't be dealing with any diesel stock for some time. Reuters points out that court filings claim Volkswagen will not sell any diesel vehicles in the US for the 2016 and 2017 model years. There's no guarantee that its TDI lineups will ever grace these shores again, in fact.
None of this is set in stone just yet, though. A federal judge must still approve the settlement. In fact, VW's $15 billion settlement with owners is still awaiting final approval, as well. The next meeting to discuss the owner settlement takes place on October 18. The company is still staring down billions of dollars' worth of fines for its willingness to sell diesel vehicles that illegally bypassed federal emissions testing procedures.