Daimler will procure battery cells worth a total of more than 20 billion euros to meet the demand for its electric offensive by 2030. The group announced today, but unfortunately gives no information about who the cells will come from.The secrecy justified Daimler with "competition reasons". What is only known is that the Chinese manufacturer Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) will come into play, which should supply Daimler as well as other German carmakers in the future from its planned plant in Erfurt. CEO Dieter Zetsche describes the procurement offensive after billions invested in the development of the electric fleet and the expansion of the Group's global battery network as "the next step".As Wilko Stark, member of the divisional board Mercedes-Benz Cars, responsible for Purchasing and Supplier Quality, explains, Daimler is providing large-scale cell procurement services for the global battery production network. As we all know, this focuses on the assembly of battery systems and will in future consist of eight factories on three continents. The first factory in Kamenz is already in serial production, the second plant in Kamenz will start production in early 2019. Two more factories are being built in Stuttgart-Untertürkheim, one at the Sindelfingen site and one each at the sites in Beijing (China), Bangkok (Thailand) and Tuscaloosa (USA).In the meantime, Daimler once again confirms its ambitious production and sales targets in the eMobility sector with numbers: According to this, the Mercedes-Benz Cars division plans around 130 electrified variants by 2022 - excluding electric vans, buses and trucks. By 2025, sales of purely electric vehicles are to be targeted increase to 15 to 25 percent of total sales. To achieve this goal, Mercedes-Benz invested € 10 billion in the expansion of its electric fleet and € 1 billion in the battery production network.automobilwoche.de, media.daimler.com
A translation for our Australian friends 
Daimler keeps the battery manufacturer secret. Aha? Could it be that this battery manufacturer is currently in negotiations with AVZ? The financial pressure has become very high in the form of purchase agreements by the automobile manufacturers. How many great free resources are still available on the market? Oh oh! Some battery manufacturers will need to secure resources very quickly to meet their purchase contracts. It is very obvious that AVZ will soon come under the hammer. The secrecy of Daimler says everything for me. After all, this is the largest lithium deal of all time worth billions. Some still did not understand that. Otherwise the course would not be so low. I would leave AVZ any other lithium share left today.
