Archives for July 2017

The explosive car cartel scandal that became public over the weekend could result in billions of fines for Daimler and BMW. For alleged co-conspirator Volkswagen, the scandal could turn into something much costlier: An open rebellion of the people who work there, from the rank and file all the way into the upper reaches of management. That rebellion is under way, and the rebels demand heads.

More in Forbes.

Two years ago, the dieselgate scandal just started to unfold, I recommended to dig deeper, and to dig elsewhere than Volkswagen, because having worked in said Industry, I knew that dieselgate is everywhere. Everybody in the industry knew it, but nobody talked. In America, dieselgate-cheaters are behind bars, while in Europe, emissions cheating is treated as a lesser offense than illegal parking: Not a single fine was handed out in Europe. Today, peccadillo suddenly morphed into a monstrous antitrust case when it became known that dieselgate is the product of a secret cartel far beyond Volkswagen. “Audi, BMW, Daimler, Volkswagen, and Porsche colluded for years in more than 1000 meetings,” wrote Der Spiegel [German, paywall] today.

Germany’s Handelsblatt has a similar report.  EU antitrust regulators confirmed investigations, Reuters wrote.

The dieselgate scandal never was as simple as the common good prevailing over the villain Volkswagen. Today, we may begin to understand the true enormity of a scandal that involves a cabal of carmakers and politicians.

More in Forbes.