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By Victoria Waldersee
STUTTGART (Reuters) -Mercedes-Benz will wait to see if EV demand picks up earlier than including extra battery cell capability, with decrease projected EV gross sales which means it can not want the capability initially deliberate for 2030, its know-how chief mentioned on Monday.
The German automaker had mentioned in 2022 it could want greater than 200 gigawatt hours (GWh) of battery cell capability by the top of the last decade and deliberate to construct eight cell factories worldwide with companions, together with 4 in Europe.
However with EV demand decrease than many automakers had forecast, Mercedes-Benz (OTC:) mentioned earlier this yr it didn’t count on gross sales of electrified automobiles, together with hybrids, to succeed in as much as 50% of the full till 2030 – 5 years later than its earlier forecast of 2025.
The 200 GWh prediction was primarily based on the belief that Mercedes-Benz’s complete annual gross sales of about two million automobiles could be electrical by 2030, Chief Expertise Officer (CTO) Markus Schaefer mentioned on Monday.
“Is the 200 gigawatt hour capability nonetheless vital? It is a query of the timeline,” he mentioned.
The carmaker signed a take care of CATL in 2022 to obtain battery cells from the Chinese language agency’s 100 GWh plant being inbuilt Hungary, although it didn’t disclose the scale of the deal.
It would additionally obtain cells from a 40 GWh plant in France by way of three way partnership ACC, through which it holds a 30% stake. Plans to construct two additional ACC crops in Germany and Italy have been paused final month due to low EV demand. Mercedes-Benz additionally has suppliers within the U.S. and China.
“We’re comparatively versatile. We’ll take into consideration subsequent steps when we’ve got extra transparency on demand,” Schaefer mentioned. Itemizing the automaker’s present provider relationships, he added: “This is sufficient to cowl the subsequent stage.”
Mercedes-Benz has not reined in investments to impress its product line-up and Schaefer mentioned it was not placing vital sums into combustion engine vehicles past deliberate updates to carry its automobiles consistent with emissions laws.
Nonetheless, CEO Ola Kaellenius mentioned in February the corporate would guarantee its combustion engine line-up was aggressive nicely into subsequent decade to satisfy demand.
BATTERY TECHNOLOGY
Schaefer was chatting with journalists on the inauguration of a analysis and manufacturing centre for battery cells at Mercedes-Benz’s headquarters.
The positioning will produce tens of hundreds of battery cells a yr in a ten,000 sq. metre manufacturing facility, as the corporate strives to take higher management of the chemical composition and industrial manufacturing of its batteries.
Mercedes-Benz is engaged on lithium ion cells with high-energy anodes and cobalt-free cathodes, in addition to solid-state know-how, which holds the promise of extra power storage, longer driving ranges and quicker charging.
Rising the power density of EV batteries is vital notably for premium automakers trying to cut back car weight and prices whereas boosting driving vary.
Cell designs developed on the new centre can be shared with associate firms and integrated into future battery cells from suppliers, Schaefer mentioned
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