Volkswagen gets more time from U.S., auditor to comply with diesel settlement terms

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Volkswagen <VOWG_p.DE> said on Thursday it has been granted an additional 90 days to test its compliance programmes required under a criminal plea agreement with the U.S. government following its emissions cheating scandal.

The extension means that an independent compliance auditor, Larry Thompson, will monitor Volkswagen until September 2020.

Thompson, a former deputy U.S. attorney general, was installed in 2017 after VW was caught manipulating pollution tests. He and his team have been seeking to ensure that VW's revamped compliance procedures are working.

Volkswagen said it had made a request for the extension to the U.S. Department of Justice and Thompson, and that they had approved the extra time.

Hiltrud Werner, VW's chief of integrity and legal affairs, said this was about getting it right.

"In a global company as large and complex as Volkswagen, we need to have enough time to be careful and rigorous in all our testing," Werner said.

The Department of Justice didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

(Reporting by Tom Sims; Editing by Thomas Seythal and Susan Fenton)