Sky-high ticket! BMW Volkswagen fined 6.7 billion yuan, Daimler "surrendered" exempted from fines

According to CCTV news, the European Commission announced on the 8th local time that the three German automobile manufacturing groups Daimler Group, BMW Group and Volkswagen Group have joined forces to suppress the full application of diesel exhaust cleaning technology, violating EU anti-monopoly law, and violating the EU anti-monopoly law, which is against the Volkswagen Group And BMW imposed a total fine of 875 million euros (about 6.7 billion yuan).

The European Commission stated that Daimler, BMW, and Volkswagen Group's car companies Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche all have technologies to reduce harmful emissions from diesel vehicles below EU standards. These five car companies colluded between 2009 and 2014 to avoid Compete with each other in the field of "emissions clean" technology, so as not to reduce emissions to levels below EU standards.

It is worth mentioning that Daimler Group, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz, had to pay a fine of 727 million euros, but considering that it was the first to disclose the facts to the European Commission, Daimler Group was exempt from fines, while Volkswagen Group and BMW Group Was fined 502.3 million euros (approximately 3.86 billion yuan) and 372.8 million euros (approximately 2.865 billion yuan).

The European Commission's "emission cleaning" refers to the reduction of nitrogen oxides in automobile exhaust. The way to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions is to install a liquid storage tank in the automobile and put a special urea solution, that is, diesel exhaust treatment fluid. The more treatment liquid, the better the exhaust gas cleaning effect. According to the European Commission, the five car companies discussed and reached an agreement on the size of the liquid storage tank in the car produced.

In 2019, the European Union formally initiated a lawsuit against Volkswagen, BMW and Daimler, accusing the three companies of colluding with each other to deliberately limit the cleanliness of car exhaust emissions and delay the release of gasoline engine particulate trap technology. Specifically, these three companies limit the size of storage tanks used to contain AdBlue chemicals. Although more AdBlue can effectively limit harmful nitrogen oxides in diesel emissions, the larger the storage tank size, the more The space for audio or other components will affect certain configurations of the vehicle.

From the perspective of the amount of fines, Daimler Group`s amount is much higher than that of Volkswagen Group and BMW Group, which means that Daimler Group may be the most serious car company in this emission scandal, but due to its [surrender" behavior. , The European Commission exempted Daimler from fines. However, even so, Daimler could not escape from this emission scandal.

On July 7, the German Consumer Protection Organization (VZBV) filed a lawsuit against Daimler because Daimler used a cheating procedure to modify some diesel-powered Mercedes-Benz GLC/GLK emission data.

In fact, as early as 2018, Daimler had already recalled the vehicles involved, a total of 254,000 vehicles, covering nearly 50,000 Mercedes GLC and GLK models, but the official has never admitted that [intentional manipulation of vehicle emission tests" "Result", or based on this, the German Consumer Protection Organization (VZBV) decided to file a lawsuit in the court. The lawsuit aims to set a precedent for Mercedes-Benz GLC and GLK owners to obtain compensation related to cheating software for emission testing. However, Daimler believes that the lawsuit initiated by VZBV against the company is groundless and will challenge the lawsuit.

Although the EU statement indicated that the automakers were willing to settle the case, the Volkswagen Group showed its willingness to initiate legal proceedings after the punishment results were released. Volkswagen Group is considering whether to appeal the EU antitrust fine. The company said that penalties for technical negotiations with other automakers on emissions technology are a precedent for judgments that are still to be discussed. After being fined, Volkswagen said that the European Commission is entering a new judicial field because it regards technical cooperation as an antitrust violation for the first time. Volkswagen added that the European Commission is imposing a fine on Volkswagen, although the content of the negotiations has never been implemented and no customers have been harmed.

Judging from the incident, the emission gate incident not only caused Daimler, BMW, Volkswagen and other German automakers to pay huge fines, but also faced a loss of reputation.