Daimler agrees U.S. settlement over diesel emissions

BERLIN (Reuters) – Daimler has reached an agreement to settle U.S. proceedings relating to investigations into software to cheat diesel emissions tests that will result in costs of about $1.5 billion, the German carmaker said on Thursday.

The maker of Mercedes-Benz cars said it expects an impact on its free cash flow over the next three years as a result, with the main impact within the next 12 months.

Diesel vehicles have come under scrutiny in the United States since Volkswagen admitted in 2015 to installing secret software on 580,000 U.S. vehicles that allowed them to emit up to 40 times legally allowable emissions.

(Reporting by Emma Thomasson; Editing by Susan Fenton)