Carmaker has paid $7.4bn to buy back 350,000 vehicles after it was exposed for circumventing emissions controls

Volkswagen has taken parking lots to a whole new level in the US – and will not be emptying them soon.

Volkswagen AG has paid more than $7.4bn to buy back about 350,000 US diesel vehicles, a recent court filing shows. The German automaker has been storing hundreds of thousands of vehicles around the US for months.

Volkswagen has 37 secure storage facilities around the US housing nearly 300,000 vehicles, the filing from the program’s independent administrator said. The lots include a shuttered suburban Detroit football stadium, a former Minnesota paper mill and a desert site near Victorville, California.

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VW spokeswoman Jeannine Ginivan said in a statement the storage facility in Victorville, California, is one of many “to ensure the responsible storage of vehicles that are bought back” under the terms of the Volkswagen diesel settlements.

“These vehicles are being stored on an interim basis and routinely maintained in a manner to ensure their long-term operability and quality, so that they may be returned to commerce or exported once US regulators approve appropriate emissions modifications,” she said.

In total VW has agreed to spend more than $25bn in the US for claims from owners, environmental regulators, states and dealers and offered to buy back about 500,000 polluting vehicles. The buybacks will continue through the end of 2019.

The court filing said through 31 December Volkswagen bought back 335,000 diesel vehicles, resold 13,000 and destroyed about 28,000. As of the end of last year VW was storing 294,000 vehicles around the country.

VW must buy back or fix 85% of the vehicles involved by June 2019 or face higher payments for emissions.

The company said in February it has repaired or fixed nearly 83% of covered vehicles and expects to soon hit the requirement.

Through mid-February VW has issued 437,273 letters offering nearly $8bn in compensation and buybacks.

In April 2017 Volkswagen was sentenced to three years probation after pleading guilty to three felony counts and paid $4.3bn in penalties. In September 2015 it admitted to circumventing the emissions control system in diesel vehicles for vehicles sold since 2009, prompting the resignation of the company’s chief executive.