Volkswagen is setting aside more funds to deal with fallout from the diesel crisis, adding 2.2 billion euro ($2.4 billion) to the 18 billion euro war chest. The automaker made the decision to set aside more funds in light of continuing legal risks in the U.S.

VW issued a brief, unscheduled statement addressing its financial results from the first half of the year, while mentioning the additional risks it faced.

"The Group Operating Result before special items for the first six months is 7.5 billion euro despite the ongoing economic impact from the diesel issue," VW said in a statement.

The announcement comes a few days after three U.S. states filed a lawsuit against the automaker for violations of environmental regulations, also alleging that its former CEO covered up evidence of emissions-cheating efforts and its current CEO, Matthias Mueller, knew about the software for several years. News of this allocation also comes a few days after VW representatives told their U.S. dealers that they will provide some form of compensation in relation to the diesel crisis, which has caused considerable turmoil within dealer ranks and threats of lawsuits.

Even though the automaker reached a $15 billion settlement with U.S. authorities at the end of June -- it is slated to be ratified by the court by the end of July -- VW still faces the threat of lawsuits from individual states.

Earlier in the summer, Volkswagen set aside $500 million to deal with individual states' lawsuits, though recent developments suggest that this figure may be surpassed by the costs and future settlements related to continuing litigation, something the automaker may have underestimated months ago. VW predicted it would not be able to address all claims within the scope of the settlement; lawsuits against the automaker by states and various class-action firms may drag on for years.

Back home in Europe, environmental groups and some EU officials are keeping pressure on the automaker to compensate European owners of affected VW diesel cars, which number 8.5 million (in comparison with just around 600,000 in the U.S.). VW has pushed back against these calls for months, arguing their vehicles did not violate various EU environmental and industry regulations, but it remains to be seen whether VW can escape fines and other penalties in Europe.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io