(credit: Erik B)

On Tuesday, US District Judge Charles Breyer announced that Volkswagen Group and regulators had reached a $1 billion settlement over a portion of the 80,000 3.0L diesel vehicles that are still driving on US roads equipped with illegal emissions-system-defeating software.

VW Group says it will buy back 20,000 of those cars. The German company hopes to offer a fix for the remaining 60,000, although approval for the fix is still pending the approval of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

This tracks with earlier rumors that VW Group would buy back 20,000 older Audi and VW SUVs due to the more complicated nature of the fix that would be required to make those cars compliant with federal emissions standards. Those same rumors suggest that the remaining 60,000 cars could be brought into compliance with a mere software fix, potentially saving VW Group billions in buyback costs or more involved fixes.