VW gets OK for fix on some diesel vehicles

Volkswagen said Friday that it has won regulatory approval in Germany to begin repairs on over 800,000 diesel-engine vehicles affected by the emission scandal.

Germany’s Federal Motor Transport Authority approved the technical solutions for the European Passat, CC and Eos models with 2-liter engines, a significant step toward resolving the company’s admitted failure to properly meet government air emission standards of many of its diesel models.

“I am pleased that the retrofitting of over 800,000 of our customers’ cars can now begin,” Jurgen Stackmann, VW’s brand board member in charge of sales and marketing said in a statement Friday.

The recall and fix involve only VW’s 2-liter diesel engines and affect only a portion of VW’s estimated 8.5 million

vehicles on the road with potential problems in Europe. Volkswagen also is still trying to win the approval of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other regulators for a fix for its U.S. diesel-engine models, including the Chattanooga-made Passat. VW hasn’t sold 2016 diesel versions of the U.S. Passat model because of the diesel emission problems.

Volkswagen said it expects to receive approval for other high-volume models with the affected 2-liter engines in the near future.

The emissions crisis began last September when U.S. authorities said Volkswagen installed defeat devices in software to deceive regulators in more than 500,000 diesel-powered cars in the U.S. The company is still working with regulators for a fix on those vehicles.

Last month, VW took an $18.1 billion charge against its earnings and cut its 2015 stock dividends because of the diesel emissions scandal.