BERLIN, July 26 (Xinhua) -- A spokesperson for Daimler told Xinhua on Wednesday that there was "nothing more to say", after reports surfaced that BMW had cancelled talks concerning future cooperation between the two German luxury carmakers.
Over the weekend, allegations that leading German automotive brands -- including Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche and Daimler-owned Mercedes-Benz -- have colluded illegally since the 1990s were widely publicized by press.
According to information about the scandal obtained by the newspaper Spiegel, Daimler had made a voluntary self-declaration of illicit meetings to European Union (EU) antitrust authorities as early as 2014.
Another newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported on Tuesday night that this circumstance has deeply angered BMW which has a long tradition of official cooperation with Daimler and consequently feels betrayed.
Speaking to Xinhua, Daimler said it was unable to comment on what it described as "media speculations".
In order for Daimler not to endanger its status as a principal witness, and hence potentially evade prosecution, the Stuttgart-based company must maintain strict communicative silence over the allegations of industry collusion in public.
"The trust [between the firms] is completely damaged," Sueddeutsche Zeitung cited people close to the matter. Carmakers now found themselves "in the midst of a tsunami".
Daimler and BMW employees confirmed to Sueddeutsche Zeitung that cooperation talks had been frozen. While no formal decision has been made by BMW's directors, the firm's management wants to critically reassess joint projects in areas such as corporate strategy and supply chain management.
Plans for Daimler and BMW to work together on the establishment of a refueling network for electric vehicles are still on track, although likely to be delayed. Both carmakers have also held talks for months to form an alliance between their car-sharing subsidiaries Car 2 Go (Daimler) and Drive Now (BMW). Industry experts expected the fusion of marketing platforms to be complete within the second half of 2017.
BMW and Daimler are competitors in the segment of high-powered luxury vehicles. However, they are both small producers with roughly 2 million cars sold annually each, compared to giants such as Volkswagen, General Motors and Toyota.
To offset added costs caused by a lack of similar economies of scale, the two firms therefore have a long-standing tradition of cooperating in areas such as sourcing to negotiate better contracts with suppliers.
According to BMW and Daimler, such joint ventures result in savings worth hundreds of millions of euros every year.
Daimler's voluntary self-declaration to competition authorities at the European Commission concerns working groups with five German carmakers. The EU is currently investigating whether illicit collusion occurred during these meetings which would have led to added costs for consumers.
The supervisory boards of Volkswagen and Daimler are scheduled to meet on Wednesday to discuss the "cartel scandal". Volkswagen also filed a voluntary self-declaration of illicit industry collusion with competition authorities in 2016.
