Mercedes-Benz wants to pay the equivalent of just over 102 million euros USA finally settle the dispute over alleged emissions violations. A spokesman for the car manufacturer in Stuttgart said settlements had been reached with US states. They would still have to be approved by the responsible courts. In the past, the Mercedes-Benz Group and its US subsidiary were accused of excessive emissions from around 250,000 diesel vehicles.
Appropriate provisions had already been made in the balance sheet for the current comparisons in the past. With the agreements now reached, Mercedes-Benz is taking another important step towards legal certainty in connection with various diesel procedures, a spokesman said. “The company is thus concluding the main outstanding legal proceedings in connection with diesel emissions in the USA.” The settlements avoid lengthy and costly disputes in court. There was full cooperation with the state attorney general’s offices.
The diesel scandal in the USA cost Mercedes-Benz billions
Since 2016, Daimler has been in the sights of the US justice system because of allegedly doctored measurements on emissions of the pollutant nitrogen oxide. However, the company had always rejected targeted manipulation of exhaust technology with cheating software, as was used at Volkswagen for years.
Unlike the Wolfsburg-based company, which admitted large-scale emissions fraud in 2015 under pressure from the US authorities, Mercedes-Benz did not admit guilt under the previous settlements and the current agreement and did not have to buy back vehicles from customers or be monitored by a watchdog from the US authorities. To do this, Mercedes-Benz had to improve the cars via software updates, similar to those in Europe.
According to a statement, Mercedes-Benz had already updated more than 85 percent of its cars and vans to the corresponding new software in accordance with a previous agreement. The aim of a new incentive program is now to promote additional software updates beyond the level agreed in the 2020 comparison, the company also announced.
According to a spokesman, the costs of resolving the diesel scandal in the USA, including the new settlements, amounted to over two billion euros. Most recently, in 2024, the US Department of Justice closed its criminal investigations against Mercedes-Benz without filing any charges.