Daimler AG is expanding the production capacities for lithium-ion batteries with investments of around €100 million
01 Dec 2014 | 4702 Views | By Autocar Professional Bureau
Daimler AG is expanding the production capacities for lithium-ion batteries with investments of around €100 million (Rs 776 crore) in the Deutsche ACCUmotive subsidiary in coming years. Currently, a new building to be completed by mid-2015 is under construction in the Saxon city of Kamenz.
“We are looking forward ...
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Daimler AG is expanding the production capacities for lithium-ion batteries with investments of around €100 million (Rs 776 crore) in the Deutsche ACCUmotive subsidiary in coming years. Currently, a new building to be completed by mid-2015 is under construction in the Saxon city of Kamenz.
“We are looking forward to continuous growth in the demand for Deutsche ACCUmotive batteries”, said Frank Blome, Managing Director of Deutsche ACCUmotive, during the topping out ceremony for the new production hall on Monday, which was attended by Saxony's prime minister Stanislaw Tillich and further guests from politics and the economy. With the completion of the third construction phase Deutsche ACCUmotive will have nearly 20,000 square metres of production and logistics space at its disposal – or four times the area since the start of production in the year 2011.
“The production of battery systems by Deutsche ACCUmotive GmbH in Kamenz will contribute significantly to the growing expertise of the auto state Saxony in the area of electro mobility and battery technology. That is why I am pleased about the three-digit million investments in a company like Deutsche ACCUmotive GmbH here in Kamenz”, said Tillich. “The expansion of the company again shows that Saxony has much to offer as an innovation location. With excellent research close to industry at the technical universities, colleges and research facilities as well as with very well educated specialist manpower. These are the best prerequisites for investments here in Kamenz and in the entire free state of Saxony”, said the prime minister.
Deutsche ACCUmotive was founded in 2009 for the development and production of lithium-Ion battery systems for vehicles. The company is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Daimler AG. The R&D activities of Deutsche ACCUmotive are located in Nabern in the Stuttgart area and the production takes place in the Saxon city of Kamenz. Series production started in the year 2011. The Daimler subsidiary supplies lithium-ion batteries for the current smart fortwo electric drive and the hybrid variants of the S-, E- and C-Class of Mercedes-Benz, and has delivered more than 50,000 lithium-ion batteries to date.
“Deutsche ACCUmotive will be producing the lithium-ion batteries for the upcoming electric versions of the smart fortwo and forfour from 2016 as well as for future hybrid models of Mercedes-Benz”, announced Blome. “The development and production of our lithium-ion batteries is competitive in every respect. We are in the black at Deutsche ACCUmotive.” Thus, Kamenz and the Nabern development location will continue to play a key role in high-performance batteries for alternative drives - from hybrid models to the pure electric vehicle - as a high-tech location in the Daimler Group.
Additional growth opportunities outside the automotive industry also arise for Deutsche ACCUmotive through the entry into the business with stationary applications, where the vehicle batteries serve as the technological foundation for the development of stationary energy storage units. The scalability of the systems enables the use of the lithium-ion batteries in big industry for network stabilization and smoothing of peak loads (peak shaving) for energy producers as well as private households, for example, in conjunction with photo-voltaic installations. Deutsche ACCUmotive can already profit from economies of scales through series production of vehicle batteries and score with the high safety standards from the automotive industry. The company is certified according to ISO TS 16949. “We have already concluded the first customer contracts. With our systems we can make an important contribution to the energy turnaround”, said Blome.
Deutsche ACCUmotive GmbH und Co. KG, founded in 2009, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Daimler AG. The company develops and sells highly complex drive batteries for hybrid and electric vehicles based on lithium-ion technology. The Daimler subsidiary employs more than 250 employees – about 180 in Kamenz and approximately 80 in Nabern. Deutsche ACCUmotive has delivered more than 50,000 lithium-Ion batteries to date.
At this time the product range of Deutsche ACCUmotive includes three lithium-ion battery systems for different models. This includes the current smart fortwo electric drive and the Mercedes-Benz Models S 300 BlueTEC HYBRID, S 400 HYBRID, E 300 BlueTEC HYBRID, E 400 HYBRID and C 300 BlueTEC HYBRID. Systematic hybridization is a fixed element of the Daimler powertrain strategy. In the current year, Mercedes-Benz has sold more hybrid-driven vehicles than all other German manufacturers combined.