The auto company plans to buy many transmissions from supplier Magna in the future.
(Photo: dpa)
Munich Daimler is fully committed to electromobility. By the end of the decade, the Stuttgart Dax group wants to increase the proportion of its purely electric car fleet from the current four to one hundred percent. To this end, the Mercedes manufacturer is planning, in a consortium with ACC, to once again manufacture large-scale battery cells itself.
“At the same time, the transformation is linked to driving the exit from the combustion world, with engines and transmissions,” emphasized Daimler CFO Harald Wilhelm in an interview with journalists on Friday. The manager announced that the development and future production of transmissions for compact models with a front engine such as the A-Class would be outsourced to Magna by 2025.
The Canadian-Austrian automotive supplier already produces seven-speed transmissions for the brand with the star. In the future, the group will also take over the production of eight-speed transmissions for Mercedes-Benz. The Swabians are currently assembling these components themselves at their Romanian locations in Sebes and Cugir.
“We are not talking about the sale of factory parts here, but the scope of development and industrialization is being gradually transferred to the corresponding Magna locations,” explained Wilhelm. This enables Daimler to transform the locations in Sebes and Cugir more quickly in the direction of electromobility.
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According to Daimler, the approximately 3,000 jobs in Romania should not be endangered by the cooperation with Magna. There is still enough to do, both plants are “very well utilized”. Especially since the nine-speed automatic transmission for heavy sedans with rear-engined cars is to continue to roll off the production line in Sebes.
Long-term future of the Romanian plants uncertain
It is still unclear what role Sebes and Cugir will play in electromobility at Daimler in the long term. The company is currently “in the planning phase with a view to the changing product portfolio and its effects,” explained Daimler.
With the outsourcing of the seven-speed transmission, the Stuttgart-based company is further reducing its vertical range of manufacture for diesel and gasoline units. Just over a year ago, Daimler announced that it would be producing hundreds of thousands of gasoline engines per year in the Far East together with the Chinese car maker Geely from 2024.
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