The fines imposed by the EU Commission on Volkswagen and BMW are not based only on very sophisticated technical issues. There are at least two fronts of analysis concerning the relationship between politics and industry.
One concerns the limits of the one and the duties of the second. According to Commissioner Vestager, “the houses had the technology to reduce harmful emissions beyond what is legally required, but they have avoided competing by not using the full potential of this technology to go beyond what is required by law”. The substance appears quite serious.
Translated: you industry must not only respect the rules that politics, ultra-legitimately, imposes on you, but you must interpret them, share them and adopt their spirit as a guide for your strategies. It matters little if, on the other hand, you industry exists to satisfy the demand of your customers, whether you are the only one entitled, thanks to your risk capital and the responsibility of millions of workers, to interpret their needs and decide which ones to satisfy with your offer and how. The laws, sorry to have to remember, are respected, without requiring their sharing. Within the perimeter of the law, everyone is free to pursue the purposes they deem appropriate. In the matter of reducing emissions, as in any other activity, there is no free meal. If you get a little more than A, you have to give up something about B, be it engine performance or production cost. To do it or not to do it remains a faculty of the company.
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The other relates to the function of politics in support of industry. The automotive sector is global: if the European one is better and more competitive, the Asian and the American ones suffer. The whole diesel-gate was based on the trade imbalance between the US and Germany, as was later made clear by the tariff war. In Europe, there are over 3 million direct employees plus an even greater induced. From the European institutions one would expect this slice of the economy to be, if not protected, perhaps protected and certainly not attacked. Unfortunately, everything revolves around one object, the car, which neither enjoys nor has ever enjoyed a good image. Public opinion must have a target to reduce climate-altering and polluting emissions and offering it the car is good game. It appears from the agencies that Volkswagen is considering whether to react legally. This would be disruptive compared to the attitude held at the diesel-gate and also an important signal in the defense of a product, the car, which is currently not replaceable as a means of individual mobility.