Photo: Stefan Baldauf / Guido ten Brink
With the demand for electric car batteries set to explode in the coming years, the biggest players of the automotive industry are scrambling to find the best solution to keep production lines rolling. For most, including Mercedes-Benz, the best solution is to manufacture the batteries in-house.
Over the following years, a total of eight factories on three continents will be manufacturing batteries for Daimler group’s cars, with only one of them, the one in Kamenz, Germany, already in operation.
A second facility is scheduled to begin operations later this year, with two more to be built in Stuttgart-Untertürkheim, one at the company’s Sindelfingen site, and one each at the sites in Beijing (China), Bangkok (Thailand) and Tuscaloosa (USA).
On Tuesday, Mercedes-Benz revealed it is adding a ninth facility to the roster, one in Jawor, Poland. The plant there will however be in charge not only with making batteries, but also four-cylinder engines for hybrid and conventionally driven vehicles.
“We will produce batteries on our own, what we consider a significant success factor in the era of electric mobility,” said in a statement Markus Schäfer, Mercedes-Benz’s head of production.
"After the production of high-tech engines, we will establish additional future technology in Poland. The battery factory in Jawor is the second largest investment at this new Mercedes-Benz site,”
Before the Polish factory announcement, Daimler committed to investing one billion EUR in the expansion of the global battery production network. With all those factories making batteries, Daimler estimates it will have to spend 20 billion EUR over the next 12 years to purchase battery cells from producers.
Ten more billion are to go towards the expansion of the Mercedes-Benz car fleet to include electric variants for virtually all of the models.
By 2022, the carmaker plans to launch 130 electrified variants of its cars, adding to them electric vans, buses, and trucks.
A second facility is scheduled to begin operations later this year, with two more to be built in Stuttgart-Untertürkheim, one at the company’s Sindelfingen site, and one each at the sites in Beijing (China), Bangkok (Thailand) and Tuscaloosa (USA).
On Tuesday, Mercedes-Benz revealed it is adding a ninth facility to the roster, one in Jawor, Poland. The plant there will however be in charge not only with making batteries, but also four-cylinder engines for hybrid and conventionally driven vehicles.
“We will produce batteries on our own, what we consider a significant success factor in the era of electric mobility,” said in a statement Markus Schäfer, Mercedes-Benz’s head of production.
"After the production of high-tech engines, we will establish additional future technology in Poland. The battery factory in Jawor is the second largest investment at this new Mercedes-Benz site,”
Before the Polish factory announcement, Daimler committed to investing one billion EUR in the expansion of the global battery production network. With all those factories making batteries, Daimler estimates it will have to spend 20 billion EUR over the next 12 years to purchase battery cells from producers.
Ten more billion are to go towards the expansion of the Mercedes-Benz car fleet to include electric variants for virtually all of the models.
By 2022, the carmaker plans to launch 130 electrified variants of its cars, adding to them electric vans, buses, and trucks.
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