Volkswagen USA reached a settlement on Wednesday with the owners of 1.35 million vehicles equipped with Takata airbags in the United States, agreeing to pay $42 million to compensate them for losses caused by the recall of these vehicles, including car rental and out-of-pocket expenses, loss of wages and childcare Expenses, vehicle maintenance costs that have been or may be faced, etc. This is the latest settlement agreement reached by major automakers, and most of the funds will be used to increase the recall completion rate.
So far, the other seven major automakers affected by the Takata airbag incident have agreed to a settlement agreement worth about $1.5 billion, involving tens of millions of vehicles. The malfunction of Takata’s airbag inflator also caused more than 400 injuries worldwide and at least 28 deaths.
Prior to this, Honda and the car owner reached a civil settlement of US$605 million, with terms similar to those of Volkswagen. Ford and car owners reached a settlement agreement of 299 million U.S. dollars, and BMW reached a settlement agreement of 131 million U.S. dollars.
