Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares announced today that the state is part of a coalition of 50 attorneys general that reached a $149.7 million settlement with Mercedes-Benz USA and Daimler AG.

Daimler's truck and luxury car businesses are going their separate ways.

Luxury carmaker Mercedes-Benz is stepping up its move into electric cars.

Luxury cars are good business even during the pandemic.

The bottom line improved on 2.7 billion euros from 2019, even as top-line revenue fell 11% to 154.3 billion euros. AdDaimler AG faced production shutdowns early in the year along with other automakers but benefitted from recovering demand for luxury cars after the first wave of the virus outbreak. The Mercedes-Benz luxury car division saw sales down only 1% in the last three months of the year. Luxury car sales were boosted by the rebound in China, the division's largest market, where sales rose 12% compared with 2019. Net profit in the fourth quarter rebounded to 3.58 billion euros from a loss of 11 million euros in the same quarter of 2019.

Daimler, maker of Mercedes-Benz vehicles, is reporting third-quarter earnings on Friday Oct. 22, 2020. Quarterly net profit rose to 2.16 billion euros ($2.54 billion), up 19% from 1.81 billion euros in the same quarter a year ago — and improving on a net loss of 1.9 billion euros from the second quarter during the worst of the lockdown. Operating profits, which exclude one-time expenses and financial items such as interest and taxes, rose to 2.42 billion euros from 1.87 billion euros in the same quarter the year before. The company saw strong cash flow and has 13.1 billion euros in net liquidity, resources it can use to develop new technologies such as electric cars and digital services. Daimler AG said that its outlook assumed no new widespread lockdowns.

WASHINGTON – Automaker Daimler AG and subsidiary Mercedes-Benz USA have agreed to pay $1.5 billion to the U.S. government and California state regulators to resolve emissions cheating allegations, officials said Monday. The settlement, which includes civil penalties, will also require Daimler to fix the vehicles, officials said. Daimler AG said the settlement would bring costs of about $1.5 billion, while the civil settlement will bring a one-off charge of about $700 million. Fiat Chrysler also is being investigated for allegedly cheating on emissions. In April 2016, the Justice Department asked Daimler to conduct an internal probe into its exhaust emissions certification process.

On Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2020 Daimler AG, maker of Mercedes-Benz cars, issues fourth-quarter and full year earnings and provides business update at news conference. (AP Photo/Michael Probst, file)BERLIN Daimler AG, the maker of Mercedes-Benz cars, says it has reached an agreement in principle to settle U.S. claims over emissions from its diesel vehicles for over $2.2 billion. The Stuttgart, Germany-based automaker said late Thursday that the agreement with various U.S. authorities concerns civil and environmental claims involving about 250,000 diesel cars and vans. Daimler said its board of management and the supervisory boards of Daimler AG and Mercedes-Benz AG approved the proposed settlements, but noted that they are subject to final approval by the relevant authorities and courts. Like rival Volkswagen and other automakers, Daimler was caught advertising lower emissions for its diesel vehicles than they actually produced.