German OEM Daimler is to invest around €500million ($542,890) to build a lithium-ion battery pack manufacturing plant as it expands its electric and hybrid vehicles range.
Using cells from LG Chem and SK Innovations, among others, the move will ‘significantly expand’ the production capacities of Daimler subsidary Deutsche Accumotive.
The groundbreaking ceremony for the new factory, which will sit on 20 hectares of land adjacent to the existing plant in the Saxon city of Kamenz, is planned for late 2016. The topping-out ceremony will follow in spring 2017.
“With the purchase of the new land, our production area at the site will be tripled,” said Harald Kröger, head of development Electrics/Electronics and e-Drive Mercedes-Benz Cars.
“The previous 20,000 square metres will be stocked up by an additional 40,000 square metres of production space. We will expand the production capacity consistently in the coming years.”
Dr. Dieter Zetsche, chairman of the board of management of Daimler AG and Head of Mercedes-Benz Cars, said the investment underlined the firm’s commitment to the consistent expansion of electromobility.
Last month BBB reported how Daimler and Accumotive were to partner Stadtweke Hannover AG (under the name Enercity) to build a ‘living storage’ lithium-ion battery storage facility using new EV battery packs that will then become replacement batteries for EVs.
It is a trend seen with many OEMs in the past two years, most notably Tesla, which launched its Powerwall last year, perhaps to justify the building of its Gigafactory amid a stagnating EV market.
Daimler entered the stationary battery storage business with Deutsche ACCUMOTIVE last year.
The scalability of the systems enables the use of the lithium-ion batteries for network stabilisation and peak shaving for energy producers as well as private households in conjunction with photovoltaic installations.
Mercedes-Benz energy storage units for private households will soon be installed in collaboration with selected sales partners.
