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VW incentive scheme for diesel cars

August 4, 2017

The embattled German carmaker has announced it will offer incentives to drivers of older diesel models of its five main passenger-car brands to switch to cleaner vehicles in a bid to help cut pollution.

https://p.dw.com/p/2hgi1
VW Volkswagen Symbol Logo Verrostet Rost Witterung
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Fredrik von Erichsen

Volkswagen (VW) said on Friday that incentives were currently being prepared for owners of models designed to meet the Euro-1, Euro-2, Euro-3 and Euro-4 emissions standards and would be on offer soon.

The carmaker - which is currently under pressure for its emissions-cheating scandal, known as dieselgate - did not, however, disclose any financial details.

According to VW, the incentives would apply to models of the VW namesake brand, Audi, Seat, Skoda, Porsche and VW commercial vehicles.

The carmaker reiterated it would install a software upgrade on around 4 million Euro-5 and Euro-6 models in Germany as part of a deal agreed with German top-level politicians to help prevent diesel cars being banned from driving into city centers.

Read more: The trouble with diesel bans

On Wednesday, Germany's carmakers, including VW, BMW and Daimler, agreed to upgrade 5.3 million diesel vehicles to reduce their harmful emissions as they scramble to save a technology badly tarnished by the VW test-rigging scandal.

Opposition lawmakers and environmental groups said the software fixes, promised at a "diesel summit" in Berlin, did not go far enough and said companies should have been forced to make more far-reaching hardware upgrades to improve the way their cars deal with emissions.

Read more: Daimler CEO: 'Diesel is worth fighting for'

The pledge on software updates came at a time when a number of German cities, fed up with heavy levels of air pollution, are contemplating driving bans on diesel vehicles - a move that would have the potential of devastating the auto sector.

uhe/rd (dpa, Reuters)