AFP
Dieter Zetsche presented in September this year, the first scion of his electric car family EQ. The electric SUV EQC should come from mid-2019 in the trade
For battery cells for its electric vehicles, Daimler will spend more than 20 billion euros in the coming years. The contracts now concluded with Asian manufacturers secured their own production until 2030, it is said.
The carmaker Daimler will spend more than 20 billion euros on battery cells for its electric vehicles in the coming years. The contracts with various suppliers ensured the supply of their own production from 2030, the company said on Tuesday.
Daimler did not name supplier details except that they produce in Asia and Europe, as well as in the US in the future. Although Daimler itself builds the batteries itself, it buys the cells – the essential building block – but from external suppliers. The supply contracts were designed so that you could have the latest cell technology, it was said.
Daimler plans seven more battery plants
A battery plant in Kamenz, Saxony, is already in operation, with seven more to follow. The construction of this production network costs another billion euros, and Daimler also devotes ten billion euros to the development and production of the electric vehicle fleet at Mercedes-Benz.
DPA
Battery cell test in Kamenz, Saxony
By 2022, 130 electrified car variants – ie pure battery electric cars as well as those with hybrid drive – are planned. In addition, there would be vans, buses and trucks. By 2025, sales of pure electric cars should amount to 15 to 25 percent of total sales, the automaker reiterated
Currently, the auto companies secure the supply of battery cells, the heart of the batteries. While Daimler wants to buy exclusively here, Volkswagen toying with its own battery cell productionas the manager magazin already reported at the end of October this year.
BMW, for its part, expanded its relationship with Chinese battery cell manufacturer Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd (CATL) this summer through an agreed equity option. BMW is already a major customer at CATL. It would order battery cells worth four billion euros at CATL, the car maker announced a few weeks ago. Strategic involvement would strengthen collaboration with CATL. CATL has since become the world’s largest manufacturer of battery cells.
rei / dpa / Reuters