Volkswagen and a handful of US regulatory agencies have been given more time to work out a settlement agreement addressing the hundreds of thousands of cars affected by VW's diesel emissions scandal, reports Reuters.

A federal judge extended a settlement deadline from March 24th to April 21st, giving Volkswagen and the US Department of Justice, Environmental Protection Agency, and the California Air Resources Board more time to negotiate.

The companies and regulators told the judge that progress was being made, but issues still needed to be worked out. There was no indication what the remaining hurdles might be.

Volkswagen has been dealing with the fallout of Dieselgate for six months now, and without any solutions for customers yet, time could soon be running out on their patience. So far Volkswagen has some solutions for customers in Europe, but not in the US, and we have not seen any indication about what civil and criminal penalties could amount to — though they could easily run into the tens of billions of dollars.