Daimler expands battery production starting in Kamenz
Daimler is building its battery production capacity globally. Daimler subsidiary Accumotive has increased its production volume and will soon be able to produce more than 500,000 battery systems per year. The plant is also preparing for future electric EQ models in the compact segment.
After the second Accumotive battery plant went into operation in Kamenz in 2018, production capacities and volumes are being successively increased. The annual production volume will soon exceed half a million battery systems for hybrid, plug-in hybrid and purely electric vehicles.
“With the plant expansion and successive production ramp-up, we have now expanded production in Kamenz to such an extent that we will soon exceed an annual production volume of more than half a million lithium-ion batteries – and that number will rise,” said Jörg Burzer, Member of the Board of Management of Mercedes-Benz AG, Production and Supply Chain Management. He explained, “We are also getting ready for the next generation of EQ models in Kamenz: electrical variants in the compact segment are not that far away.”
About a year and a half ago, electrive was able to visit the assembly line in Kamenz. At that time Plant 2 was still partly empty. Today, battery modules for the EQC are manufactured there on several 170-meter-long assembly lines.
Daimler says it considers the local production of batteries an important factor in the success of Mercedes-Benz’s electric offensive, and that this is a crucial element in meeting the global demand for electrified vehicles flexibly and efficiently. In total, the company is investing more than one billion euros in the establishment of a global battery production network with nine factories at seven locations. Daimler clearly sees Kamenz playing an important role for Europe saying that it is also a blueprint for plants in the global Daimler battery production network.
“After Kamenz, Bangkok and Beijing, the next location to soon start battery production will be Jawor in Poland, followed by plants around Stuttgart as well as Tuscaloosa in the U.S. Each new plant will benefit from the experience of the other plants. Our battery production network is well prepared for the future of mobility,” says Jörg Burzer.
The Kamenz plant has been manufacturing battery systems since 2012. These have been manufactured in Saxony from purchased cells since Daimler has discontinued its own cell production facility called LiTec. The second factory has been operating in Kamenz since 2018, and a battery assembly facility for PHEV models started operations in Bangkok in 2019. In 2020, production is scheduled to start in Jawor, Poland. Currently, the main plant in Untertürkheim is setting up battery assembly facilities in Brühl and Hedelfingen, and the Sindelfingen plant is also to receive such battery assembly facilities. A battery factory is also being built near the US plant in Tuscaloosa. Also important in the Daimler network: Mercedes-Benz and BAIC have jointly set up a local battery production facility at the existing plant location in the Yizhuang Industrial Park in Beijing.
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