The German company Daimler AG will be putting €500 million into the creation of a second lithium-ion battery production facility in Germany, according to recent news from the company. This new facility will produce lithium-ion batteries to be used in electric vehicles and hybrids released under the Mercedes-Benz brand, reportedly.
The decision to build the new facility will lead to a, roughly, tripling of Daimler subsidiary Deutsche ACCUMOTIVE’s production space. The new production facility will be located adjacent to the existing one, in Kamenz, Germany. Daimler has already bought around 20 hectares of land next to the other facility, in anticipation of construction.
The Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler AG and Head of Mercedes-Benz Cars, Dr Dieter Zetsche, commented: “To get closer to fully electric driving, we keep investing big in the key component of emission-free vehicles: powerful batteries. We are now devoting another 500 million Euros to build a second battery factory in Germany. This underlines our commitment to the consistent expansion of electro-mobility.”
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By the end of 2014, the Daimler subsidiary had already announced its plans for a significant increase in its production capacities and an investment of around €100 million (US$109 million) in the expansion of the existing battery factory. The groundbreaking ceremony for the new factory is planned for fall 2016. The topping-out ceremony will then follow in spring 2017. The new production plant is to start operations in summer 2017.
In addition to supplying batteries for Daimler automobiles, Deutsche ACCUMOTIVE is also entering the stationary battery storage market for private and industrial applications. Daimler entered into the business with stationary battery storage with Deutsche ACCUMOTIVE last year. The scalability of the systems enables the use of the lithium-ion batteries in large industry for network stabilization and smoothing of peak shaving for energy producers as well as private households. Deutsche ACCUMOTIVE, founded in 2009, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Daimler AG. The company develops and sells drive batteries for hybrid and electric vehicles based on lithium-ion technology. Since the start of series production in 2012, it has delivered more than 70,000 lithium-ion batteries.
Daimler is currently in a supply agreement arrangement with LG Chem.