Before Alan Falls Asleep - 13 July 2021

FOLLOW UP: EU FINES BMW AND VW BUT NOT DAIMLERFollowing the whistleblowing move from Daimler, informing the EU of a technology cartel dating back to the 90s, involving Daimler, BMW and VW Group, which we mentioned in Ep 248 My Turn With The Shovel, fines of $1 billion have been levelled at BMW and VW Group. Daimler does not pay anything due to them being the whistleblower. To read more, click this TechCrunch article here. STELLANTIS ANNOUNCE EV STRATEGYStellantis has announced the electric strategy for their brands, including Opel/Vauxhall, which will be electric only from 2028. To read more about what is planned and the amount of money being invested click the Autocar article here. Added to this, mission statements were assigned to each brand. Some appear to have been decided by committees, whilst others seem more successful. Click the Motor1 tweet showing them all, here. GERMAN CLASS-ACTION EMISSIONS CASE AGAINST MERCEDESMercedes-Benz have been filed a class-action case with regards to emission altering technology in their OM651 engines, installed in the GLK and GLC models. Mercedes strongly refute the claim. To read more, click the Autocar article here. NEW BUGATTI AND RIMAC JOINT VENTURERimac will own 55%, with Porsche owning 45%, of the new joint venture Bugatti-Rimac, which is hoped will utilise the engineering prowess of Bugatti and the technology of Rimac to move the brand forward for the future. To read more, click the YesAuto article here. ——————————————————————————-If you like what we do, on this show, and think it is worth a £1.00, please consider supporting us via Patreon. Here is the link to that CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT THE PODCAST——————————————————————————-SMMT TEST DAY 2021Alan went to the twice delayed SMMT Test Day, on July 13 2021, where he met many people, which was lovely, and tried many cars, which was also lovely. The list of cars he tried are as follows;LEVC TaxiFIAT 500e ActiveCupra Formentor PHEVMINI Cooper John Cooper Works GPFord Kuga ST-Line PHEVPorsche Taycan TurboMG ZS EVToyota Supra GR 2.0AND FINALLY: HOW TO REALLY MAKE MONEY WITH AV CARSThe link takes you to an excellent article, which pokes serious fun at some companies and their approach to getting money for their technology. To read more, and help hone your cynicism for this technology, click here for The Onion article.