It's a stats set of Daimler R&D spending from 2011 to 2018 (no paywall with a Google referrer, sorry). It's about doubled in the time, and that looks about the same for the other big ones, I think, certainly some googling on BMW R&D etc. would suggest so.

Personally, I don't think emissions test cheating takes your R&D from 3 bn. to 7 bn, so the parent's comment seems to be oversimplifying or wrong.