Ohio Becomes First State To Get Millions Over Dieselgate Scandal

Volkswagen is going to pay the state of Ohio $3.5 million in a settlement because of the 2015 Dieselgate scandal. Ohio claims the German automaker violated state laws when it manipulated vehicle computer software to cheat emissions tests, according to Reuters.

In November 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court threw out VW’s bid to avoid lawsuits filed by three states including Ohio. The company argued that under the Clean Air Act, only the federal government can pursue emissions claims. Volkswagen also noted they reached a more than $20 billion settlement with the EPA and vehicle owners over Dieselgate.

The state of Texas and two counties in Utah and Florida also have pending lawsuits.

It should be noted that the settlement with Ohio is just a tiny fraction of what the state was originally looking for. In court papers, VW said that Ohio’s claims could have totaled “$350 million per day, or more than $127 billion per year, over a multi-year period.” So it would seem $3.5 million isn’t too much of a price to pay.

Despite the smaller-than-asked-for payout, Ohio’s Attorney General said the settlement holds VW accountable for its actions.

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The Ohio Environmental Protection agency and the attorney’s general office will split the money between them.

If you’ve somehow missed what Dieselgate is after all these years, here is a quick refresher. In 2015, VW admitted it had used software to evade emissions requirements in nearly 11 million diesel vehicles around the world. It also misled the EPA — which were looking into the matter — starting in 2014.

The lawsuit said VW’s software updates allowed the vehicles to enter a “test” mode which would reduce operations during emissions testing.

Basically, VW dumbed down vehicle performance during testing — and subsequently lost billions of dollars and good standing around the world. Oh, and now diesel cars are pretty much dead in the U.S. Good job, Volkswagen!