Engine compartment of a Mercedes
Daimler has to organize the production of electronic drives.
(Photo: Daimler AG)
Stuttgart Michael Häberle has just had old black and white photos framed. Shown here are employees and machines from the early days of Daimler at the parent plant in Stuttgart-Untertürkheim. The memorabilia are still packed in bubble wrap, but they are soon to hang in Häberle’s office. The 50-year-old has been head of works council in Untertürkheim since the beginning of the year and has set himself the task of combining tradition with modernity.
Specifically, the Supervisory Board member of the Dax Group is struggling to get the electrified powertrain, or eATS, to Untertürkheim. For more than 110 years combustion engines have been manufactured here. The location is the tail unit for all drives of the Mercedes manufacturer. From the point of view of Häberle it should therefore be a matter of course that in Untertürkheim the two most important parts of the Electric cars with star logo to be produced: batteries and electric drives.
While in the spring part of the factory in Brühl already laid the foundation for a battery assembly, a decision on the eATS is still pending. And the chances that Häberle will prevail again are dwindling day by day.
The negotiations with plant manager Frank Deiß are “difficult”, the powerful employee representative now let his employees know. He faces a catalog of demands that are in no way related to the negotiation package.
“At the eATS there is a hitting and stinging,” is confirmed in industry circles. After all, the suppliers also want to get the prestigious order and go to their utmost pain threshold. In the past, the home-and-home suppliers of the domestic carmaker always built a new product for a new market first in their German master factories. “This is not the case this time. There are already early supplies from Eastern Europe, “says an insider.
Works council under pressure
DaimlerWorks council Häberle brings this under enormous pressure. He sees himself confronted with supply prices from suppliers who calculate with a significant share of added value in low-wage countries.
Even worse, the decision to “make” or “buy”, to power or buy the electricity itself, falls into a time when Daimler has to drastically save. And for the CEO Ola Källenius In the end, the bare numbers count for all awards, according to company circles. The signs in the electricity drive are therefore currently clearly on purchase.
If so, Källenius risks the open uprising of the workers’ leaders. “It would be completely incomprehensible and a fatal signal, if the electric powertrain would be outsourced, only to save costs in the short term,” Häberle calls in conversation with the Handelsblatt. The battery drive, consisting of electric motor, small gearbox with differential and power electronics including control software, marks a red line for the works councils.
It would be utterly incomprehensible and a fatal signal if the electric powertrain were outsourced. Michael Häberle, Daimler Works Council
In a resolution, they ask the board to produce the next eATS generation in Stuttgart – everything else is “not tolerable”. Combat measures up to the strike? Not excluded.
This threatens the conflict over the power drive to a hard power struggle between works council and management. In doubt, the production and assembly of the eATS will only bring a few hundred jobs, but for Häberle and his followers, the battery-powered drive is the central symbol of Daimler’s more than 170,000 employees Germany not to miss out on the transformation towards electromobility.
So it’s not about any product, and certainly not about any work. Untertürkheim, that is the nucleus of Daimler, the oldest factory, built in 1904. Here is the headquarters of the company headquarters. 19,000 employees work at the site today. No other Daimler factory can boast such a history – and no one else is so dependent on the combustor.
Almost 11,000 men and women produce engines, transmissions and axles with castings in six parts along the Neckar. “Dying industry” calls that a Daimler executive.
“In Untertürkheim fewer people have to be in five years, quite clearly,” says another manager: “I can not imagine, with the best intentions, that we will once again invest heavily in German plants.” Um the high cost of electromobility To be able to shoulder shoulders, the vertical range of manufacture had to forcibly decrease with the traditional technology.
Works council Häberle has little understanding for such announcements. The workforce is already proactively facing changes in the industry. “We go into advance, already in 2017, a reduction in vertical integration supported and now show again our flexibility,” said Häberle. In fact, Untertürkheim only made a decision in the summer due to the foreseeable weaker demand for diesel cars.
No diesel engines in the main plant anymore
Accordingly, Daimler will no longer assemble diesel engines at its main plant in the future. “This is a novelty and shows how willing the workforce is to react flexibly to changes in the industry,” says Häberle. Although the most important components for diesel engines are still to be produced in Untertürkheim, the final assembly of the units will in future only take place in Kölleda in Thuringia and in Jawor in Poland.
“Untertürkheim will continue to produce parts for diesel engines to the existing extent,” explains Daimler on request. The Group also points out that Untertürkheim will be further developed into a “high-tech location” for electrical components by the establishment of two battery factories. In addition, employees in Germany will be protected against redundancies until the end of 2029.
The end of diesel engine assembly therefore has no negative impact on employees, especially as more gasoline engines will be rolled off the assembly line in future in Stuttgart. Nevertheless, the decision seals the end of an era, which now, according to the workers’ leaders, must follow a new one with the electric powertrain.
But also the competition of the automotive suppliers with the eATS is enormous. On the IAA showed two years ago Bosch. ZF and Mahle at half-hourly for the first time their electric drive axles. Also Conti. Schaeffler. Siemens. Rheinmetall. Valeo, Getrag or Borg-Warner are on the topic.
Two years later reported ZF-Chef Wolf-Henning Scheider execution. Ironically, in the Stuttgart newspapers, which are on the breakfast table for Daimler employees in the morning, Scheider announced in a big interview on July 10 winning a prestige contract: “ZF is the drive supplier for Mercedes Benz in the new EQC. “
ZF supplies the entire system for Daimler’s first electric SUV. Scheider spoke of a “milestone”. The contract is likely to be the largest single order for pure electric cars of the traditional group, which has grown up with gearboxes and chassis.
Damage control with a vengeance
Daimler’s workers leaders raved after the interview. They now want to do everything with their power to limit damage and ensure that at least the next generation of the eATS will be manufactured in Untertürkheim from 2024 on its own. But it is not only ZF who is fighting hard for such prestige contracts, all suppliers are under enormous pressure to succeed in the field of electric drives.
industry Leader Bosch At the beginning of 2018, it canceled its entry into the production of battery cells. No other German supplier dares to date. Thus, the entire German supplier industry for electric cars renounces about 30 percent of the added value.
The fight for the remaining 70 percent is correspondingly tough. And the powertrain is the second largest value added block after the battery, accounting for 15 to 25 percent, depending on whether both the front and rear axles are electrified.
value added
25
percent
the value added share of the electric drive train is maximum for an electric car. Source: Industry
“Suppliers are pushing for the powertrain by all means,” says an industry insider. The equal pace of the competitors is thus predetermined. Car manufacturers and suppliers are looking for replacement for the electric era, as soon as the numbers of burners fall from the middle of the coming decade.
“It’s about very large value added scopes, which are lost in diesel and gasoline,” says Stefan Bratzel. The head of the Center of Automotive Management (CAM) is convinced: “This will also be a very hard struggle for survival for our suppliers.”
The problem: An electric car needs only one-fifth of the parts compared to a gas burner. “The competition is getting sharper, and at the same time, the pie is still shrinking,” says Bratzel.
The result: The automotive industry will not need so many employees in the future. If half of all new cars drive electrically, the industry needs 15 to 20 percent less staff, calculates Bratzel. Everyone is now somehow trying to put their troops to work.
“The electric drive will be Bosch’s next success story,” said Bosch boss Volkmar Denner at the IAA Confident in September. at VW but the Swabians went so far empty.
The major customer from Wolfsburg builds the powertrain for his most important current model, the ID.3, largely himself. Also BMW So far, eATS relies on its own solutions. Remains only Daimler as a client among the three domestic auto giant for the suppliers. Whether one of them comes to the train or after works council Häberle prevails, should decide later this year.
More: Daimler wants to reduce more than a thousand jobs in management. According to a letter from the works council, Daimler CEO Källenius announced this internally.