The move to the electric era is facing a lot of traditional car makers with a lot of tough choices, including some of the oldest names in the business, like Mercedes-Benz. The German giant already proved that it takes the challenge ahead seriously and unveiled some of the most efficient electric cars ever made so far. Things are bound to be taken to a new level from 2024 onwards though, according to a new report.
Automotive News claims that the future electric platforms Mercedes-Benz will deploy will not only be developed completely in-house (as one would expect) but they will be designed in such a way as to use components made by the company, not outsourced. Therefore, the components used on these future EVs will be made in-house, in order to allow the company to make sure that everything is up to the usual Mercedes-Benz spec customers have been getting used to over time.
“We want to control the overall system of electric motor, battery, and power electronics as much as possible, similar to what is the case with the combustion engine,” Markus Schaefer, head of development at Daimler, told Automotive News sister publication Automobilwoche. “Until now, the electric powertrains have come from external partners.”
That’s an interesting move and it is bound to happen from 2024 onwards. Heavy investments will be needed but, at the same time, it will allow Mercedes-Benz to keep its workforce intact, but focused on a different type of propulsion system. “We will certainly have to discuss expanding capacity globally for the electric powertrains, because we are accelerating significantly in electromobility, and by 2025 half of our vehicles will already be on the market purely electrically or as plug-in hybrids,” Schaefer added.
For now, Mercedes-Benz has a rather typical way of building electric cars. Like most manufacturers on the market right now, most components are sourced from various suppliers. For example, the powertrain modules for the EQC come from ZF while Valeo-Siemens provides the electric motors for the EQS.
