Daimler plans to purchase battery cells worth 20 billion euros
Reading time 1 min Staff Writer | December 12, 2018Daimler will spend 20 billion euros (22.7 billion U.S. dollars) on battery cells until 2030.
Europe Dieter Zetsche, chairman of the board of management
Daimler's aims to increase the share of fully electric cars to 15 to 25 percent across all vehicles sold by 2025 and seeks to offer 130 electrified variants of Mercedes-Benz models by 2022. German carmakers are struggling to fulfill EU targets as well as a binding quote for electric cars that has been announced by China, the biggest market of the German car industry.
By now, all large German car manufacturers are phasing out of combustion engines entirely. In November, German rival Volkswagen announced its intention to invest almost 44 billion euros in digitization and electric mobility by 2023. VW boss Herbert Diess added that "we have decided to examine the participation in a battery cell production".
According to Daimler, the battery cells will be purchased on the global market and then assembled in eight in-house factories on three different continents. The first battery assembly plant in the Saxon town of Kamenz is already in operation.
Daimler did not reveal the manufacturers from which it intends to purchase battery cells but only announced that the manufactures "already produce battery cells in Asia and the United States. ■