Daimler to buy £18 billion of battery cells for electric car drive

FRANKFURT (Reuters)-Daimler (DAIGn. DE)
Will buy batteries worth more than 20 billion euros (
18 billion)
By 2030, with the mass production of hybrid and electric vehicles, Mercedes-Benz manufacturers
Mercedes-Benz said on Tuesday.
With European regulators limiting toxic diesel emissions, the company is one of many German automakers, expanding on a large scale in the field of electric vehicles.
\"With the large number of orders for batteries until 2030, we have set another important milestone for the future of electric vehicles to be electrified,\" said Vico Stark, overseeing the procurement and supplier quality of the Mercedes board of directors
Mercedes-Benz said in a statement.
Daimler declined to say which supplier contracts will be awarded.
The company has signed a battery supply agreement with South Korea SK Innovation (096770. KS), LG Chem (051910. KS)
Chinese Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL)(300750. SZ)
Because in addition to the production of electric vans, buses and trucks, it plans to launch 130 electric and hybrid vehicles by 2022. Stuttgart-
Daimler-based companies need batteries as it is established in Kamenz, Untertuerkheim and Sindelfingen in Germany, as well as Tuscaloosa in Beijing, Bangkok and the United States
Daimler says it is expanding the capacity of battery research and next-generation batteries to reduce dependence on expensive rare earth minerals, including cobalt, mainly from war
Torn Democratic Republic of the CongoThe Mercedes-
The company said the Mercedes-Benz EQ electric vehicle will use batteries containing 2019 nickel, 60% manganese and 20% cobalt, which will launch 20%.
Mercedes of the future
The batteries of Mercedes-Benz electric vehicles will use 80% nickel, only 10% manganese and 10% cobalt.
\"Our engineers are also working on the ratio of 90% nickel, 5% manganese, 5% cobalt to further reduce the number of rare earth metals,\" Daimler said, adding that it is also working on solid-state batteries
No cobalt is needed.
Future products.
The automotive industry currently has a range of different battery formulations that compete for the battery cathode.
One is NCA or lithium nickel cobalt alumina produced by Panasonic (6752. T)
And was Tesla (TSLA. O).
Chinese manufacturers use a component called LFP, which has a low energy density but does not contain cobalt, while Japanese automakers use LMO or lithium manganese oxide used by Nissan and LG Chem051910. KS). ($1 = 0. 8790 euros)