By the end of the decade, the Daimler boss only wants to build electric vehicles.
(Photo: imago images / Lackovic)
Munich It’s a gigantic undertaking. Daimler boss Ola Källenius wants to increase the share of purely electric cars in the company’s total car sales from currently three to one hundred percent by the end of the decade. For this, the Mercedes manufacturer needs batteries with a capacity of 200 gigawatt hours.
Now the partner with whom Källenius wants to achieve the goal has been determined: Mercedes-Benz is investing in the Automotive Cells Company (ACC) and securing a third of the shares for a medium three-digit million amount. The other two owners of the French company are the Opel parent company Stellantis and the oil multinational Total.
The trio’s noble goal is to turn ACC into a “European battery champion with global ambitions”. To this end, a total of seven billion euros are to be pumped into the company, with around 1.3 billion euros likely to come from German and French taxpayers. By the end of the decade, ACC wants to use this money to build a capacity for the production of high-performance cells of at least 120 gigawatt hours.
The group did not initially announce how much of this volume ultimately ends up at Mercedes. However, Daimler CEO Källenius emphasized: “Through the partnership, we are securing the scope of delivery, using economies of scale and can offer our customers superior battery technology.” In addition, investing in ACC is helping to make Europe a “center” in the electric age the automotive industry remains, ”stated the Swede.
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Daimler is responding to a central problem: the cells that make up the energy storage system are scarce worldwide. And the suppliers are mainly from China and South Korea. In order to avoid a dangerous dependency on Asian suppliers, the Swabians announced in the summer that they would start cell production themselves together with partners. After joining the ACC, it is now clear who this partner is.
ACC doubles production
ACC now plans to more than double the capacity in its European factories. So far, the French had announced that they would start mass production in the lead plant in Douvrin in 2023 and then gradually increase capacities there to 24 gigawatt hours.
From 2025, the first cells will also be produced in the Opel component plant in Kaiserslautern. In the final stage, 24 gigawatt hours are also planned here. That means: in Douvrin and Kaiserslautern alone, ACC could produce cells for around one million vehicles annually by the end of the decade. In order to be able to meet the battery requirements of Mercedes from the middle of the decade, however, that is by no means sufficient.
ACC is therefore currently considering expanding its production network in Europe. According to Handelsblatt information, it is very likely that the battery specialist will pull up another assembly in Kölleda, Thuringia. Mercedes currently produces four- and six-cylinder engines here with around 1,400 employees. With the settlement of the cell, the pure combustion subsidiary MDC Power GmbH could have long-term future prospects.
Negotiations are also still being made about a second Daimler location, where the core components for the heart of electric cars could be manufactured. The main plant in Stuttgart-Untertürkheim would actually be predestined for this. After all, the group is pooling its concentrated know-how for all types of drive here and also wants to develop its own battery cells on pilot lines from 2023.
But in the Neckar valley there may not be enough space for a gigafactory. This is why other Daimler plants in Baden-Württemberg are also vying for a possible award. These include, for example, Gaggenau, Rastatt and Sindelfingen, according to industry circles. Daimler itself does not comment on such considerations.
Two supervisory board seats for Mercedes
But one thing is clear: The Swabians act as equal shareholders at ACC and, like Stellantis and Total, are to receive two of the six seats on the company’s supervisory board. The battery cells from ACC should also be 95 percent recyclable and primarily produced using electricity from renewable energies. “The participation is a strategic milestone on our way to CO2 neutrality,” said Daimler boss Källenius.
The alliance with ACC is not intended to have any impact on Daimler’s strategic cooperation with the two Chinese cell specialists CATL and Farasis. One continues to stand fully behind these partnerships, it is said from Stuttgart. Nevertheless, Daimler is pleased to be able to secure the “degree of localization in the procurement of battery cells” with ACC. In other words: with the French, Mercedes is trying to establish a counterweight to the overpowering Asian suppliers.
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