DETROIT

Volkswagen will spend $14.7 billion to settle consumer lawsuits and government allegations that it cheated on emissions tests in what lawyers are calling the largest auto-related class-action settlement in U.S. history.

Under the settlement revealed Tuesday by a U.S. District Court in San Francisco, VW will pay just over $10 billion to either buy back or repair about 475,000 vehicles with cheating 2-liter diesel engines. The company also will compensate owners with payments of $5,100 to $10,000, depending on the age of their vehicles.

The German automaker also has to pay governments $2.7 billion for environmental mitigation and spend another $2 billion for research on zero-emissions vehicles.

VW is still facing billions more in fines and penalties as well as possible criminal charges. A lawsuit by state attorneys general against the company apparently has been settled, but terms were not available Tuesday.

Volkswagen has admitted that the 2-liter diesels were programmed to turn on emissions controls during government lab tests and turn them off while on the road. Lawyers are still working on settlements for another

80,000 vehicles with 3-liter diesel engines. The company got away with the scheme for seven years.

As part of the settlement, VW must offer to buy back most of the affected cars, or terminate their leases. That’s because, according to court documents filed Tuesday, there currently is no repair that can bring the cars into compliance with U.S. pollution regulations. If VW does propose a repair, it must be approved by the Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board.

Owners who choose to have VW buy back their cars would get the clean trade-in value from before the scandal became public on Sept. 18, 2015. The average value of a VW diesel has dropped 19 percent since just before the scandal began. In August of 2015, the average was $13,196; this May it was $10,674, according to Kelley Blue Book.

If VW can come up with a repair that meets EPA and California standards, it’s likely to hurt the cars’ acceleration and fuel economy. Volkswagen marketed the cars as both more fuel efficient and better performing that those with regular gasoline engines.

The settlement still requires a judge’s approval before it can go into effect. Owners can choose to decline Volkswagen’s offer and sue the company on their own.

The company has to buy back or repair 85 percent of the vehicles or pay even more money into an environmental trust fund.

“This historic agreement holds Volkswagen accountable for its betrayal of consumer trust and requires Volkswagen to repair the environmental damage it caused,” said Elizabeth Cabraser, the lead attorney for consumers who sued the company.

Unless it can develop a suitable fix, VW may be forced to buy back all the 2- liter vehicles. But it appears from documents filed by the Justice Department and EPA that the technology might not be available to fix them. VW has been working on a fix since around the time the scandal broke.

“At the present time, there are no practical engineering solutions that would, without negative impact to vehicle functions and unacceptable delay, bring the 2.0 Liter subject vehicles into compliance with the exhaust emission standards and the onboard diagnostics requirements,” the order said.

The scandal erupted in September when U.S. regulators revealed that the German automaker had fitted many of its cars with software to fool emissions tests and had put dirty vehicles on the road.