Frankfurt (AFP)
The German luxury sedan maker Mercedes-Benz (Daimler group) announced on Friday that it would take 33% of the capital of Automotive Cells Company (ACC), a joint venture of TotalEnergies and Stellantis for the manufacture of batteries.
The manufacturer "becomes a shareholder with equal rights" alongside the two French groups and will obtain two out of six seats on the company's supervisory board.
It will invest in the coming years an amount "less than one billion euros" in the development of production capacities of electric cells in Europe, including around 500 million euros in 2022, he said in a press release. .
"The partnership ensures us deliveries and allows economies of scale," said Ola Källenius, boss of Daimler, quoted in the press release.
Daimler will contribute its "technology and production know-how" to ACC, the group said.
Financial details of the stake were not disclosed.
The entry of Mercedes-Benz to the capital "clearly strengthens ACC's commercial potential and confirms our ambitious growth plans", commented Yann Vincent, CEO of the company, referring to an "important step", "demonstration of confidence in our technology".
By the end of the decade, ACC's production capacities should reach 120 gigawatt hours per year "in Europe" for a total investment volume of "over seven billion euros" from all partners.
The company then aims to manufacture one million batteries for electric cars per year by 2030.
The joint venture's first battery plant, near the Stellantis plant in Douvrin in Hauts-de-France, plans to start production in 2023 after the opening of a pilot line in Nersac (Nouvelle-Aquitaine) from here the end of the year.
At the Kaiserslautern plant operated by Opel, a German subsidiary of the Stellantis group, ACC wants to start production in 2025.
Daimler has promised that it will be "ready" to go all-electric by 2030 and will invest 40 billion euros over the decade in electrification.
The manufacturer, which is preparing a historic split from the Daimler group with the listing of the heavy-duty division, intends to open eight electric cell factories around the world, including four in Europe.
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