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Mercedes Hits The Wall

By Marty Padgett
Marty Padgett Marty Padgett
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Mercedes versus Shuanghuan

Mercedes versus Shuanghuan

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Last month, Mercedes-Benz USA shelled out almost $29 million to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, after being fined for the poor fuel efficiency of its automobiles. (Yes, the NHTSA can do that.) Details are sketchy, but we know that many automakers expect to pay such fines, especially on their luxury vehicles; the corporate bean-counters simply build them into the cost of doing business. However, $29 million is a serious chunk of change--the third-highest fine ever levvied against an automaker--and MB is surely making a big ol' sad face today.

As if that weren't bad enough, the company is on the verge of losing two lawsuits: (1) a copyright infringement lawsuit against Chinese automaker Shuanghuan, which claims that Shuanghuan's Bubble model is a rip-off of MB's smart fortwo (fyi, there's some truth to that), and (2) a related lawsuit against the Bubble's Italian-based importer. BMW hurled similar charges at Shuanghuan and just got shot down, so Mercedes is trying to broker a deal to prevent legal losses and to short-circuit the massive €100,000,000 countersuit filed by the importer. Some months, it may not pay to get out of bed.--Richard Read

[via Freep; also MotorAuthority via Autoblog]



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Comments (2)

  1. Eddie Posted: 1/7/2009 7:52pm PST

    "I don't get it?"

    Can someone please explain to me why MB had to pay a fine? Did they manufacture and/or import cars into the US that did NOT meet fedral emission standards? Did they not meet the CAFE required MPG? Don't people already pay gas guzzler taxes when they buy a, say, MB S63 AMG? so what is this new fine for?
     
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  2. Richard Posted: 1/8/2009 4:43am PST

    "Details to follow"

    The CAFE fine is specifically tied to fuel efficiency (not emissions), but at this point, all we know is that some of MB's autos didn't meet US standards. Alas, Mercedes hasn't released any sort of statement to clarify the charges. However, in its CAFE entry, Wikipedia provides this bit of info:
    "If the average fuel economy of a manufacturer's annual fleet of car and/or truck production falls below the defined standard, the manufacturer must pay a penalty, currently $5.50 USD per 0.1 mpg under the standard, multiplied by the manufacturer's total production for the U.S. domestic market."
    By that formula, MB has some serious violations on its hands. We'll post specifics when the come across the wire!
     
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