Sunday, January 09, 2022
Booster for German works?
Mercedes relies on its own production for e-drives
The German car manufacturers have now firmly attached their focus to electromobility. According to a report, Daimler will soon be building the drives for many Mercedes models entirely in-house in order to become as confident with the electric drive as it is with the combustion engine.
In the future, Mercedes will rely more heavily on its own production facilities for electromobility. According to a report by the “Automobilwoche”, the company intends to build the complete drive system for the new MMA (suitable for vehicles up to C-Class format) and MB.EA (for medium-sized and large cars) itself from 2024. “To do this, we are significantly increasing the depth of added value and switching from external procurement to our own production. Up until now, the electric drive trains have come from external partners,” said Daimler head of development Markus Schäfer. This included ZF and Valeo Siemens eAutomotive. “We want to master the entire system of electric motor, battery and power electronics as well as possible, similar to what is the case with the internal combustion engine,” said Schäfer.
With the accelerated switch to electromobility, the already agreed quantities would also grow, emphasized the head of development. “We will certainly have to discuss expanding the capacity of the electric drive train globally, because we are accelerating significantly with electromobility and by 2025 half of our vehicles will be on the market as purely electric or as plug-in hybrids.” This benefited the plants, which were previously heavily dependent on the combustion engine.
“The first kit with the axial motors from Yasa for higher performance will be located in Berlin. The second kit with the radial motors from Mercedes for the more compact vehicles will be built in Untertürkheim,” announced Schäfer. In doing so, the company also complies with a requirement of the works council.
Mercedes first introduced its own drive system at the presentation of the EQXX concept car. With less installation space and high efficiency, significantly longer ranges should be possible, especially with compact cars. The EQXX can even cover more than 1000 kilometers with one charge.