In a hearing held in federal court in San Francisco on January 20, 2016, the judge overseeing the civil litigation against Volkswagen, Judge Charles Breyer, again demonstrated his commitment to resolving the Volkswagen cases quickly and efficiently. Judge Breyer stressed the need for Volkswagen to act with urgency to resolve the case.
“There’s at least half a million people with an immediate problem. This case needs immediate resolution of the issues. I’m not suggesting that other people aren’t affected. But the immediacy of the resolution seems to rest with the consumers.”
Volkswagen’s lawyers said that VW has had a team of engineers “working around the clock” to identify a fix to the emissions issue which would still have to be approved by the EPA. On January 12, 2016 the EPA agreed with a California Air Resources Board (CARB) rejection of VW’s initial plan for the “fix” which included a software change for all of the models, plus the addition of extra parts in some of the models. VW is still in talks with the EPA to come up with an acceptable plan. It seems likely that a fix may be available within the next three months or so.
At the hearing, VW’s lawyers also stated that for a very small group of the vehicles, there likely would not be a fix offered, and that VW would probably have to offer a buyback program. VW’s lawyers, however, did not identify which models they were considering as part of a buyback program. Ultimately, the decision will surely be determined by whether it is more economically advantageous for VW to buy back a particular model or “fix” it.
