Diesel door pulled out of the monopoly door, BMW was back this time by Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen "daggered knife"

According to news from the British media on October 20, the BMW headquarters was raided by the EU last week due to alleged corporate monopoly. European Union investigators are currently investigating whether BMW, Daimler, Volkswagen, Audi, and Porsche are collaborating with each other to reduce their spending on exhaust gas technologies. Interestingly, although BMW deny that there is such behavior, Daimler and Volkswagen have submitted relevant materials to the European Union to prove that a monopoly event exists.

The origin of this incident dates back to July this year. At the time, German "Der Spiegel" weekly magazine revealed an explosive news, saying that since the 90s of last century, Germany's five major automakers Volkswagen Group and its subsidiaries Audi, Porsche, and BMW, Daimler and other five car companies formed Carter The monopoly alliances are used to maintain their status as industry giants and have a strong voice. When the news broke out, it immediately triggered an earthquake in the European automotive industry.

According to German weekly magazine Der Spiegel, since the 1990s, Volkswagen, BMW and Daimler have held secret meetings in different working groups to discuss technologies, production costs, suppliers, strategies, and even how to develop diesel engine exhaust gas treatment. The system is the largest and most shocking scandal in the history of the automotive industry.

Among them, a key project that was disclosed was the size of the urea tanks for collusion control vehicles. When a diesel vehicle is working, it releases nitrogen oxides and it needs a urea solution for vehicle treatment. The larger the Urea tank, the better the effect on tail gas treatment, but the higher the cost, in order to completely neutralize the nitrogen oxides in the exhaust gas, the capacity of the urea tank must reach at least 19 liters.

However, in order to avoid unnecessary competition between them, the five big car companies agreed in 2008 to jointly use 8 liters of urea tanks, in order to save the cost of 80 euros per car. For Volkswagen's annual global sales of about 10 million units, the savings can be described as a huge sum of money.

In order to meet the stringent emission standards while reducing the capacity of urea tanks, it is only necessary to do tricks in the emission tests, so there will be a sensational “emission gate” incident last year. The "emissions gate" incident is just the tip of the iceberg of this monopolistic behavior for more than 20 years.

According to the "Der Spiegel" weekly report, in order to find evidence of VW's manipulation of steel prices last year, German authorities raided VW's office and discovered for the first time that there was an illegal monopoly between German car companies. Two weeks later, VW and Daimler has submitted to the anti-monopoly authorities voluntary approval of the entry examination, hoping to reduce the punishment. This behavior can be seen as an indication of the attitude of the two companies to this matter.

Recently, Daimler issued official news that not long ago, Daimler had taken the initiative to expose the possible anti-monopoly agreement to the EU, and submitted an application for exemption from fines. In this regard, Daimler Chief Financial Officer Hakata Ubo Confidence said: "We don't even need to prepare any funds for antitrust fines."

At the same time, the public had previously submitted relevant information on their own initiative and may also obtain immunity. This means that the two car companies have already taken practical actions to protect their own interests.

The European Union stipulates that if a car company wants to obtain immunity, it must first submit sufficient information and evidence to the EU about the cartel's monopoly case. And said: "At present, the Daimler Group is actively cooperating with the EU in order to obtain immunity." In addition, the EU also stipulates that if any car company can provide the EU with the first important material evidence, it may reduce the maximum 50 % of the fine.

What needs to be known is that once the news is established, these five companies will not only suffer serious losses in stock prices and reputation, but also impose fines of up to 10% of their annual income. According to the operating income of these car companies in 2016, the total fine will be close to 50 billion euros.

Comments: In the outside world, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi have been fighting for each other for so many years. They have never stopped each other. But in reality, people have long been secretly huddled. It is too deep. However, facing this situation nowadays, it is difficult for them to fly on their own, and one confession is more positive than the other. In this regard, the headline monarch can only say: There are no permanent friends, no permanent enemies, only eternal interests.