Volkswagen made the deadline ... and for the first time in a while, there's a glimmer of hope for the embattled automaker in its quest to power out the trudge of its emissions cheating scandal — at least as far as its affected vehicles in Europe are concerned.

On Wednesday, Volkswagen acknowledged that it submitted its blueprint on how to fix its manipulated four-cylinder diesel vehicles in Europe to the German Federal Motor Transport Authority, just making the cut of the Nov. 30 deadline the agency had given the company. That speaks for the affected European vehicles, while VW has yet to roll out the details for its American fixes.

According to Volkswagen, each size of four-cylinder diesel engines — ranging from the smallest 1.2 liter to mid-sized 1.6 liter and largest 2.0 liter — will require its own fix. The fixes are expected to start in January and will take all next year to finish.

The automaker will bring the 2.0 liter engines to speed via a software update, while the 1.6 liter machinery will need both a software update and plastic filter installed inside the engine's air intake. The 1.2 liter engines are expected to only need a software update, but Volkswagen said it's still looking into its smallest motors and what they'll need.

Software updates will take 30 minutes out of drivers' time, while the plastic filter installation takes about an hour, according to VW.

"In the development of the solutions, the focus was on maximum customer-friendliness," Volkswagen said in a statement Wednesday, as reported by CNet.

Now that Volkswagen has laid out its blueprint, the next step will be to make good on it and complete the job by the end of next year.