BMW, Daimler Sued for Not Being Green Enough

Matt Posky
by Matt Posky

While I often criticize manufacturers, I try to remain sympathetic to their collective plight. Despite being multinational corporations that typically lack accountability, they’re still businesses that need to turn a profit to maintain their existence and are constantly coping with fluid regulatory rules or social pressures. That’s one reason why green initiatives are often more about optics and money than achieving any tangible environmental goals.

But not adhering to cultural dogmas can have real ramifications, as BMW and Daimler recently found out. The companies are being sued in their native Germany for allegedly failing to meet carbon reduction targets and not setting an official date to abolish the internal combustion engine.

That probably sounds reasonable enough if you’re an eco-warrior or one of those Extinction Rebellion types who block roads ( forcing vehicles to idle unproductively) as a way to protest air pollution. But if you’re sane, you might be wondering how a company can be sued for manufacturing products consumers continue to purchase and have been around for over a century.

Apparently, it’s all the rage in Europe.

Earlier this month, Greenpeace and the German environmental non-governmental organization (NGO) Deutsche Umwelthilfe (literally DUH) said they would be taking action against Volkswagen, BMW, Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler, and oil producer Wintershall Dea if they didn’t immediately strengthen their environmental commitments.

While this sounds exactly like extortion, a legal precedent was actually set in the Netherlands last year. A case was brought against Royal Dutch Shell, with regional courts ruling that the company had to reduce its greenhouse emissions by 45 percent by 2030 (vs 2019 levels). Shell claimed that its previous timetable of 2050 still adhered to the Paris Agreement. But the court was seemingly disinterested in the accord and ultimately sided with Friends of the Earth Netherlands, Greenpeace, Fossil Free Netherlands, and their co-plaintiffs.

NGOs have since decided to go against German automakers and oil concerns, with Greenpeace and DUH leading the charge this time. According to Reuters and Germany’s Handelsblatt, a formal suit was filed on Monday evening:

In letters to the firms in early September, the companies were given until September 20 to agree to the NGO’s demands, which also included limiting production of internal combustion engine (ICE) cars ahead of 2030.

Neither of the companies has so far set an end date for ICE car production.

BMW and Daimler confirmed to Reuters on Monday that they had not accepted the NGO’s demands.

You know, I think a lot of my controversial ire for electric vehicles stems from the fact that they’re being mandated rather than improved to a point where they make sense to buy over internal-combustion cars. We already have a regulatory environment that financially penalizes entities for not being sufficiently green. But there’s also this constant government involvement that cuts companies a break for selling EVs and allows manufacturers to get off with little more than a slap on the wrist when they really screw things up.

The whole thing borders on being farcical and it often seems like nobody is taking a serious, objective look into any of this. EVs are great for some people and totally impractical for others. Their swift adoption is also likely to have indirect consequences for a place like Germany, where the population remains heavily reliant on coal for energy production.

Something tells me an unrestrained push toward electrification may pan out like the EU’s former passion for diesel. Europe had been pushing diesel vehicles as the greener alternative to gasoline for decades, offering all kinds of incentives to ensure residents would buy them. Then it found out that they were flooding the atmosphere with nitrogen oxides and loading up cities with soot. The resulting backlash the regulators into a tizzy as they upgraded efficiency rules automakers couldn’t hope to adhere to. Now they’re ready to embrace electric vehicles with wild abandon while largely ignoring the perils of mining the materials necessary for battery production, the widespread job losses associated with EV manufacturing, and proper grid loading.

[Image: Imagenet/Shutterstock]

Matt Posky
Matt Posky

A staunch consumer advocate tracking industry trends and regulation. Before joining TTAC, Matt spent a decade working for marketing and research firms based in NYC. Clients included several of the world’s largest automakers, global tire brands, and aftermarket part suppliers. Dissatisfied with the corporate world and resentful of having to wear suits everyday, he pivoted to writing about cars. Since then, that man has become an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, been interviewed on the auto industry by national radio broadcasts, driven more rental cars than anyone ever should, participated in amateur rallying events, and received the requisite minimum training as sanctioned by the SCCA. Handy with a wrench, Matt grew up surrounded by Detroit auto workers and managed to get a pizza delivery job before he was legally eligible. He later found himself driving box trucks through Manhattan, guaranteeing future sympathy for actual truckers. He continues to conduct research pertaining to the automotive sector as an independent contractor and has since moved back to his native Michigan, closer to where the cars are born. A contrarian, Matt claims to prefer understeer — stating that front and all-wheel drive vehicles cater best to his driving style.

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  • Crosley Crosley on Sep 22, 2021

    The Left loves litigation, they can't get things through the normal, democratic process. But they can always find some unelected judge that thinks they are a "super -legislator" and doesn't have pesky voters to worry about and can stay on until they die. Like a King.

    • See 1 previous
    • FreedMike FreedMike on Sep 23, 2021

      @Lou: It's only overly litigious if someone on "the left" does it.

  • 28-Cars-Later 28-Cars-Later on Sep 23, 2021

    "Deutsche Umwelthilfe (literally DUH)" "DUH" sounds about right for these loons.

  • MaintenanceCosts It's not a Benz or a Jag / it's a 5-0 with a rag /And I don't wanna brag / but I could never be stag
  • 3-On-The-Tree Son has a 2016 Mustang GT 5.0 and I have a 2009 C6 Corvette LS3 6spd. And on paper they are pretty close.
  • 3-On-The-Tree Same as the Land Cruiser, emissions. I have a 1985 FJ60 Land Cruiser and it’s a beast off-roading.
  • CanadaCraig I would like for this anniversary special to be a bare-bones Plain-Jane model offered in Dynasty Green and Vintage Burgundy.
  • ToolGuy Ford is good at drifting all right... 😉
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