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Volkswagen weathers the storm from emissions cheating scandal

Volkswagen is rolling out its plan for re-selling most of the cars involved in the German automaker’s diesel emissions cheating scandal.

Volkswagen brand head Herbert Diess told reporters after a board meeting at Volkswagen’s lone U.S. plant in Tennessee on Thursday that the fallout from the scandal “is something we need to live with” as the company seeks to regain relevance and market share in the United States.

“The brand suffered a lot worldwide, we are suffering still,” he said. “And for sure we are not through.”

It has been more than a year since Volkswagen agreed to pay more than $20 billion to settle criminal charges and civil claims related to the company’s sale of nearly 600,000 cars with “defeat devices” designed to beat U.S. emissions tests.

The first batch of retrofitted vehicles includes new 2015 models that went unsold following the cheating revelations. Dealers who received diesels as part of Volkswagen’s buyback program will get the right of first refusal for those vehicles as they enter the used market, said Hinrich J. Woebcken, head of Volkswagen Group of America.

“After that, there are several channels to remarket them in a controlled way, so they don’t come all at once to the market,” he said. “We want to ensure the residual (resale) values of those cars remain stable.”

Higher-mileage and more heavily used vehicles will be scrapped.

The management meeting in Chattanooga comes as Volkswagen ramps up production of the new seven-seat Atlas SUV.