VW offers incentives to trade in dirty diesel cars

FRANKFURT: Volkswagen AG’s namesake brand and its upscale sister marque Audi are offering as much as 10,000 euros (US$11,800) per car in incentives in Germany to trade in older diesel models for new ones that spew out fewer emissions as political pressure to fight pollution intensifies ahead of general elections.

The incentives depend on which model is purchased and the offer is open for owners of cars from rival manufacturers, VW and Audi said in emailed statements yesterday.

“Volkswagen is convinced that clean and efficient diesel engines with modern emission-reduction systems are an indispensable engine technology to reach CO2 emissions targets,” while the manufacturer will still “strongly support” the shift to electric cars, Juergen Stackmann, head of the VW grand, said in the division’s statement.

VW’s incentives start at 2,000 euros for the purchase of a new Up! city car and reach 10,000 euros for a Touareg sport utility vehicle.

The Wolfsburg, Germanybased automaker is still strug- gling to draw a line under the diesel-emissions scandal that erupted almost two years ago and triggered the worldwide recall of some 11 million cars with rigged software.

Volkswagen chief executive officer Matthias Mueller last week confirmed the manufacturer is offering software fixes for as many as four million diesel cars in Germany across all of the group’s nameplates, including about 2.5 million VW-brand cars that were part of a mandatory recall.

Demand for cars with diesel engines is declining in several European markets as regulators stepped up scrutiny of emission rules to improve air quality.

Environmental advocacy group Deutsche Umwelthilfe, a fierce critic of diesel cars, last month won a case at a Stuttgart administrative court seeking broad diesel bans in the hometown of VW’s German peer Daimler AG.

The trade-in offers are valid through the end of the year. Volkswagen’s commercial-van division and Czech unit Skoda also said they’re providing incentives.