TUSCALOOSA, Ala., March 15 (Reuters) – Mercedes-Benz AG (MBGn.DE) will not reduce spending on future electrical autos even because it copes with supply-chain price pressures exacerbated by the Russia-Ukraine battle, the German automaker’s chief government mentioned on Tuesday.
Ola Kaellenius, talking in the course of the firm’s opening of its first U.S. electrical automobile (EV) battery manufacturing facility, additionally affirmed the corporate’s 2022 monetary outlook remained in place regardless of the battle.
“We at all times defend the funding into future know-how and future merchandise,” Kaellenius instructed Reuters. “That’s the seed which we are going to harvest. Not even in COVID 12 months of 2020 did we in the reduction of on R&D for essential tasks.”
Mercedes is working with suppliers in Ukraine whose operations have been disrupted, he added, however it was “too early to inform what the broader ramifications will probably be.”
Rocketing gasoline costs since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has amplified the challenges for established automakers that also depend on fossil fuel-powered autos for earnings. And hovering costs for supplies utilized in EV batteries like nickel, closely mined in Russia, have additionally harm the business.
Kaellenius is attempting to speed up the shift by Mercedes from combustion know-how firm to a agency whose merchandise don’t emit carbon and depend on software program and computing energy.
Mercedes and different established automakers path Tesla in EV gross sales and in creating laptop and software program programs to compete with the U.S. agency’s stream of recent options and updates.
Daimler Truck cut up from Mercedes in December and Kaellenius mentioned Tuesday he noticed no motive for Mercedes to additional separate EVs from the combustion-engine operations. Some traders have pushed established automakers to create pure EV items.
A camouflaged prototype of the brand new Mercedes-Benz EQS Electrical SUV is displayed on the automaker’s new battery pack plant in Bibb County, Alabama, U.S. March 15, 2022. REUTERS/Joseph White
“There is just one Mercedes-Benz and that one firm earlier than many individuals assume will probably be an all-electric firm,” Kaellenius mentioned in an interview.
Mercedes additionally mentioned on Tuesday that Japanese battery maker Envision AESC would provide battery modules for U.S.-made Mercedes EVs from a brand new U.S. plant by the center of the last decade.
Alongside the launch of its Bibb County, Alabama, battery plant, Mercedes additionally previewed a big electrical SUV to be constructed on the close by Tuscaloosa, Alabama, meeting facility this 12 months.
The EQS SUV and a smaller EQE electrical SUV, additionally to be made in Alabama, be part of a rising lineup of electrical SUVs in search of to problem Tesla (TSLA.O) in the USA, China and Europe.
The battery plant, which can make use of 600 employees, and the meeting facility are a part of a 40 billion euro ($44 billion) drive by Mercedes to go all electrical by 2030, the place markets permit.
Mercedes, which plans to supply EV batteries in Europe, North America and Asia, goals to have eight cell factories with companions around the globe with capability to supply 200 gigawatt hours a 12 months by the tip of the last decade.
The Mercedes Alabama meeting plant, which turns 25 this 12 months, can construct each electrical and combustion autos, and is without doubt one of the largest Mercedes vehicle-making vegetation on the planet.
($1 = 0.9101 euros)
Reporting by Joe White; Modifying by Edmund Blair and Aurora Ellis
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