
VW Group, BMW and Daimler are under investigation for collusion in Europe - beerlord
https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/vw-daimler-bmw-european-commission-antitrust/
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tomatotomato37
I don't really get the charges here. No manufactorer competes on how
environmently clean their cars are, as most consumers don't care beyond fuel
efficiency. As such there's no real point for manufacturers to glue on more
emissions equipment once government standards are reached; if this upsets the
government than make standards stricter.

I vaguely remember some collusion accusations over inflated AdBlue prices,
though I'm not sure how you're supposed to get a supply/demand thing going on
there if the government requires consumers to buy diseal additives.

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mikestew
Reading the comments first, but haven't gotten to the article, but this part
of your comment stands out: _though I 'm not sure how you're supposed to get a
supply/demand thing going on there if the government requires consumers to buy
diseal additives_

I don't understand. I am "required" to buy gasoline to fuel my ICE car, but
there appears to be at least some competition in the fuel market. How does
this change for the blue stuff I put in my diesel RV?

That said, though I've yet to fill the blue tank on the recently-purchased RV,
the stuff doesn't appear to be all that expensive to fill a four gallon tank.
In light of your comment, should I assume the stuff used to be more expensive
and perhaps evidence of collusion?

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tomatotomato37
Doing more research on this it seems like the accusations were the result of a
game of news article telephone rather than the actual accusations, though I
did find an article[0] that cites a german article[1] that references price
control.

As for the fuel market, I don't think its exactly a healthy supply/demand
system either due to the necessity of car ownership in certain parts of the
world; hence why OPEC is able to fuck with the market so much. It's better in
that a car can use fuel from multiple sources though, where in the case of
these emissions systems it seems you can only use a certain mixture for their
cars, who's patent is owned by a german automobile interest group.

[0] [https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/bmw-vw-daimler-
colluded-t...](https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/bmw-vw-daimler-colluded-to-
fix-diesel-system-prices-report-alleges/)

[1] [http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/unternehmen/vw-bmw-
daimler-...](http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/unternehmen/vw-bmw-daimler-
aktienkurse-brechen-nach-kartellverdacht-ein-a-1159117.html)

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mikestew
_" These technologies aim at making passenger cars less damaging to the
environment."_

...all for the low, low price of an additional $1200/vehicle. I don't _know_
that, but I know it won't be free. Before we break out the gallows, I want to
hear a cost estimate per vehicle for this "carburetor that runs on water that
the oil companies won't let us have" (to reference an old conspiracy). Because
even if the exhaust air is cleaner than the air going into the intake, it
doesn't do anyone any good if no one can afford it.

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tonyjstark
I’m pretty sure being able to afford shouldn’t be the issue for buyers of
premium brand cars like BMW and Mercedes-Benz. If it is, the buyers should
really reconsider their life choices.

But let’s see first if they colluded. If then hopefully proper penalties are
applied, I have the feeling car companies are rather softly handled by the
EU...

