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Porsche Models at the Los Angeles Auto Show (Archive)
Photo: GABRIEL BOUYS/ AFP
Porsche will pay at least $80 million in compensation in the United States in a lawsuit over false fuel consumption figures for gasoline engines.
The Volkswagen subsidiary announced that a settlement with class action plaintiffs had been reached to settle civil claims.
"The allegations relate to potential fuel consumption and emission deviations," emphasized the company, but they were not acknowledged.
The agreement serves to settle the dispute out of court and only affects vehicles that have been sold in the USA. In Germany, the Federal Motor Transport Authority initiated proceedings in 2021.
After the US class action lawsuits initially focused on possible exhaust gas manipulations, the settlement that has now been concluded is primarily about allegedly misleading information on fuel consumption.
Payments between $250 and $1109
According to the settlement filed with the district court in San Francisco, the agreement affects around 500,000 vehicles built between 2005 and 2020, whose fuel consumption figures are said to have been incorrectly presented.
The plaintiffs accuse Porsche of having physically modified test vehicles, which had an impact on emissions and fuel consumption.
Owners of affected vehicles will receive payments between $ 250 and $ 1109.
The settlement has yet to be approved by a federal judge.
The class action lawsuit stems from a 2020 SPIEGEL report according to which Porsche checked its vehicles’ fuel consumption figures after a whistleblower reported alleged irregularities in the transmission parts of petrol models.
At the time, Porsche countered the report by saying that it had tracked down possible deviations from type approvals itself.
According to the lawsuit, the findings prompted Porsche to report them to the German and US authorities.
rai/Reuters