CATL which is the world’s largest supplier of batteries has expanded its partnership with Mercedes Benz after the announcement of its new 100 GWh/ year facility in Hungary. The two have been working together since 2020 and now as the scale of the partnership elevates, the German automotive giant becomes the first to receive batteries from this new European battery plant.
Mercedes Benz announced plans to go fully electric by the end of this deal in July 2021. For it to achieve this it needs more than 200 GWh of cells annually. Mercedes is likely to get this supply from eight battery facilities in Europe.
Interestingly, the batteries Mercedes will get are likely to be the next generation cells that could have the new LFP chemistry. Mercedes is also working with Automotive Cells Company which is a battery joint venture that features Stellantis, Total and Mercedes
“This new state-of-the-art European CATL plant in Hungary is another milestone for the scale-up of our EV production together with our key partners. With CATL we have a technology leader as our partner to provide us – as the first and biggest customer of the new plant’s initial capacity – with top-notch CO2 neutral battery cells for our next generation EVs in Europe, hence following our local-to-local approach in procurement. We’re proud to see our Ambition 2039 supported by CATL’s commitment to CO2-neutral production in Hungary,” said Markus Schafer, a member of the board of management for Mercedes Benz Group AG and its CTO.
