Jörg Burzer, Member of the Board of Management of Mercedes-Benz AG, Production and Supply Chain: In the first half of 2021, production of the EQS luxury electric sedan will start in Factory 56 at the Mercedes-Benz plant in Sindelfingen. Supplied
German car maker Mercedes-Benz has announced extensive plans to build electric vehicles at six factories, with an equal number of new electric vehicle models by 2022 under its EQ moniker.
A few days after its parent company Daimler announced that it would be investing 70 billion euros in electro-mobility and digitalization,Mercedes-Benz said factories in Sindelfingen, Bremen and Rastatt in Gdermany, Kecskemét in Hungary, Tuscaloosa in the US and Beijing will all produce EVs.
Additionally, factories in Untertürkheim/Hedelfingen in Germany, Kamenz in Germany, Jawor in Poland and Beijing, China will produce battery systems for its EV models.
Mercedes’ electrification of its entire product portfolio – known as MercedesEQ – is a “central component of the strategic focus’ Ambition 2039” and a basic requirement on the way to CO₂ neutrality, says the car maker.
“We intend to lead in the field of e-mobility and focus in particular on battery technology,” said Markus Schäfer, board member and head of Daimler Group research.
“We are taking a comprehensive approach, ranging from research and development to production, and also including strategic cooperation.”
By 2022, the company’s portfolio of electric vehicles will include eight Mercedes EQ models. Similarly, the global production network is ready for the company’s electrical product offensive – the Mercedes EQ models are being consistently integrated into the series production of the existing plants.
First of the new electric models will be the EQA and EQB electric compact SUVs, to be presented in early 2021.
They will join the EQC electric SUV which was unveiled in Australia in larte 2019, and the van EQV, which Mercedes commenced production of in Spain in 2020.
The EQA – which Mercedes commenced production for at its Rastatt plant – will be unveiled in a global launch on January 20, 2021, followed by the EQB which will go into production in Kecskemét and Beijing in 2021.
Production of the EQS electric luxury sedan will commence at Sindelfingen at Factory 56 alongside the S-Class, the Mercedes-Maybach S-Class in the first half of 2021. The luxury body is the first model to be based on Daimler’s electric platform for electric vehicles announced at the IAA 2019.
According to Daimler, the fully electric EQA will be manufactured on the same production line as the compact vehicles with conventional and hybrid drives.
The car manufacturer is proceeding in exactly the same way as with the EQC, which is already on the market, which is produced in Bremen and Beijing, and the EQV from Vitoria. Production of the EQA for the Chinese market will take place over the next year at BBAC in Beijing.
Mercedes wants to have the EQB produced at two locations in 2021. For this purpose, the plants in Kecskemét, Hungary, are to be converted for the world market and in the German-Chinese joint venture BBAC in Beijing for the local market.
The EQB is the first purely electrically powered production vehicle from Hungary. The plug-in hybrid portfolio, consisting of the CLA and CLA Shooting Brake, is also manufactured at the site.
In addition to the three models, Daimler is also preparing the production of the EQE business sedan, which is scheduled to begin in the second half of 2021 at the Mercedes-Benz plant in Bremen and shortly afterwards in the Beijing plant.
From 2022, the EQE will also be produced together with the EQS in Tuscaloosa (USA). With the production plans, a total of eight Mercedes EQ electric vehicles are to be produced at seven locations on three continents in 2022.
The carmaker’s strategic goal is to achieve more than half of sales by 2030 with so-called “xEVs”. This vehicle category includes both plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles.
The long-term goal is to gradually increase the proportion of purely electric models. Thanks to the flexible production processes in the factories, Daimler can “adjust production at short notice depending on market demand”.
Bridie Schmidt is associate editor for The Driven, sister site of Renew Economy. She has been writing about electric vehicles since 2018, and has a keen interest in the role that zero-emissions transport has to play in sustainability. She has participated in podcasts such as Download This Show with Marc Fennell and Shirtloads of Science with Karl Kruszelnicki and is co-organiser of the Northern Rivers Electric Vehicle Forum. Bridie also owns a Tesla Model Y and has it available for hire on evee.com.au.
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