Munich In Baden-Württemberg, a new alliance with a signal effect is formed. Daimler Truck, the world’s largest manufacturer of heavy trucks and buses, has secured around ten percent of the shares in the Swabian mechanical engineering company Manz for almost 31 million euros. The two companies announced this on Monday and announced that they would work together as strategic partners for battery systems in the future.
The deal with the commercial vehicle giant, which weighs 40 billion euros, is a big deal, especially for Manz with annual sales of 228 million euros. The Reutlingen company’s shares shot up by around 20 percent on Monday; the shares of Daimler Truck increased by about 1.5 percent. But the cooperation with the comparatively small manufacturer of production systems for battery cells and complete batteries is also of considerable value for the truck manufacturer.
“In order to implement battery-electric transport economically, it is just as important to have the right partner in cell technology as in plant construction. Both are differentiating going forward,” says Andreas Gorbach, CTO of Daimler Truck, the Handelsblatt. The Swabians are making an agreement with the Chinese industry leader CATL for battery cells, and with Manz for production machines in the future.
There is a strategic reason why Daimler Truck has decided to become an anchor shareholder in the mechanical engineering company. The truck manufacturer, which spun off from the car manufacturer Mercedes-Benz last December, apparently wants to prevent a competitor from the vehicle industry from tying Manz’s know-how exclusively to itself.
Top jobs of the day
Find the best jobs now and
be notified by email.
Grohmann is a deterrent example: after Tesla swallowed up the German automotive supplier in 2017, the company largely stopped doing business with third-party customers. VW, Mercedes and BMW had to look for a new partner. At Manz, Daimler Truck is now taking precautions to rule out a similar case.
Technologically, Manz is considered to be well positioned. The company, which was originally mainly active in the photovoltaics industry, has repeatedly had to cope with large fluctuations in business in the past. For example, when the solar boom collapsed and that plunged the special plant manufacturer into a deep crisis in its core business.
Financially stricken, the medium-sized company had to bring a state partner from China on board with the Shanghai Electric Group in 2016, which holds around 20 percent of the shares. The Chinese succeeded in switching to battery technology. Founder Dieter Manz still owns 25.01 percent of the company.
Pilot line for battery production in Mannheim
Daimler and Manz now want to pool their know-how to develop a highly efficient production of battery cells and rechargeable batteries for trucks and buses. “The partnership between Daimler Truck and Manz forms a key cornerstone of our battery strategy,” explains Daimler Board Member Gorbach. His group claims to be the innovation leader in all-electric tractor trailers.
“It is essential to have battery cells that meet the extremely specific requirements in trucks and buses,” said Gorbach. A necessary prerequisite for this is a very close dovetailing of product development and the development of production processes.
Specifically, Manz is to set up a pilot line for the production of battery cells and for the assembly of complete battery packs for Daimler Truck in its Mannheim plant. Daimler Truck wants to develop its own lithium-ion cells there and produce them in small series. More than 60 new systems are to be set up in the coming months on an area of around 10,000 square meters.
>> Read also: VWSubsidiary MAN relies on purely electric trucks for long-distance journeys
In the “innovation laboratory” in Mannheim, Daimler Truck wants to gain important insights into which cell chemistry will be best suited to electrifying the company’s commercial vehicles, which can weigh up to 40 tons. The Dax group, based in Leinfelden-Echterdingen near Stuttgart, plans to sell more than half of its trucks with electric drives, i.e. with batteries or fuel cells, by the end of the decade.
At the same time, capacities for classic diesel engines are to be gradually reduced. The production of medium-heavy aggregates, for example, will be outsourced to US specialist Cummins by 2026. As a result, there is a lot of nervousness at the three German powertrain locations of Daimler Trucks in Mannheim, Gaggenau and Kassel. Without the assembly of essential components for electric trucks – from the axles to the electric motors and battery systems – the 14,000 jobs on site should not be able to be maintained.
Further cooperations between car manufacturers and plant manufacturers on the subject of battery production are in the offing. For example, the Volkswagen Group is exploring cooperation with the industrial technology division of Bosch to set up integrated battery production systems. At the beginning of the year, Bosch and VW announced that they wanted to be leaders in equipping battery cell factories.
It is about equipping the six large cell factories planned by Volkswagen. Bosch, the world’s largest automotive supplier, had refused to build and operate its own battery cell factories in 2018 because of the excessive financial risks. Since then the picture has changed. Car manufacturers are obviously willing to take on the financial risks.
More: Daimler Truck raises forecast – truck manufacturer benefits from rising prices