Mercedes will invest in the ACC joint venture between Stellantis and TotalEnergies for battery production. In the future, the Mercedes EQ models and the Stellantis group models will receive batteries from the same manufacturer.
Mercedes has revised its electrification plans and wants to become an electric brand by 2030 where market conditions allow. For this purpose, Mercedes needs a production capacity of more than 200 GWh.
200 GWh will be provided by the 8 battery plants – four in Europe, one in the USA and three in China. For additional capacity, Mercedes will invest almost 1 billion euros in the joint venture created between the Stellantis group and TotalEnergies. Already in 2022, Mercedes will invest the first tranche of several hundred million euros in this joint venture.
ACC plans to invest more than 7 billion euros by the end of this decade to reach an installed capacity of 120 GWh.
Mercedes will not only contribute funds to this joint venture but will also bring technology and know-how.
“Participation is a strategic step on our path to CO2 neutrality. Together with ACC, we will efficiently develop and produce battery cells and modules in Europe – tailored to specific Mercedes-Benz requirements. We use economies of scale and we can offer our customers a higher level of battery technology. We are also helping to ensure that Europe remains a hub for the car industry – even in the age of electromobility. As part of the new cooperation, the ACC intends to double the capacity of its European plants. industrial competitiveness in the development and manufacture of battery cells, “says Ola Källenius, head of Daimler, quoted by auto motor und sport magazine.
ACC will deliver batteries to Mercedes from the middle of the decade that will be designed especially for models built on the new MMA platform starting in 2024. MMA (Mercedes Modular Architecture) is intended for compact and middle class electric models but on the same platform will be built for a period also PHEV models.
But the batteries delivered to Mercedes will be different from those from Stellantis. Each manufacturer will have its own specifications for the batteries because each manufacturer will decide on the chemistry of the battery and the properties of the battery such as range, charging speed and battery quality.
Also, the batteries will be modular based on a standardized kit with uniformly designed components and interfaces. It will be possible to vary the chemistry of the battery and its height. ACC wants 95% of a battery’s cells to be recyclable.
The new partnership with ACC for Europe does not affect Mercedes’ other partnerships with CATL and Farasis for Asia.
The young ACC company founded in 2020 wants to become the leader of the European battery market. The research and development center in Bordeaux (France) is already operational and the pilot plant in Nersac (France) will start production at the end of 2021.
For Mercedes, cooperation with ACC ensures an increase in initial production capacity of 200 GWh, which is no longer enough after the Stuttgart-based manufacturer revised its electrification plans and wants to become an electric brand in 2030, 9 years earlier than expected.
