Daimler

Daimler has announced it will pour €70 billion (AU$114B) into accelerated development of electric technologies. According to electric vehicle (EV) website Electrek, Daimler – parent company of Mercedes-Benz and associated brands – is investing the money over the coming four years, after the company's Supervisory Board approved its budget to 2025.

Germany's three major automakers, the BMW Group, Daimler (parent of Mercedes-Benz) and the Volkswagen Group, have been fined a total of €100 million ($163 million) for forming a cartel to buy certain steel products. The Bundeskartellamt, Germany's competition commission, says the three car companies met twice a year with steel makers between 2004 and 2013 to set uniform surcharges for the long steel they purchased. Illegally set prices were in use until 2016.

Daimler has revealed the Smart EQ family, including the Fortwo, Fortwo Cabrio and Forfour, ahead of their public debut at the Frankfurt motor show next week. The German group's city car division is embracing its all-electric future, with the entire range relying solely on battery power.

According to an investigation by the EU's anti-trust regulator, BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen worked together between 2006 and 2014 to stymie competition in developing emissions cleaning technology. The so-called "circle of five", which included engineers from Audi and Porsche, are said to have "coordinated their AdBlue dosing strategies, AdBlue tank size and refill ranges ... with the common understanding that they thereby limited AdBlue-consumption and exhaust gas cleaning effectiveness".

A report from Handelsblatt states Daimler, owner of the Mercedes-Benz and Smart marques, will decide the fate of the city car brand by the end of the year. The decisive moves will take place from May onwards, when Ola Kallenius, currently Daimler's head of research and development, takes over from Dieter Zetsche. While Zetsche has proven to be a keen and patient supporter of Smart, it looks possible Kallenius could pull the plug.