Just thinking a little outside the box .... but could that...

Just thinking a little outside the box .... but could that slight delay delay with EV1 by a case of EV1 wanting to run parallel testing of the EV1 AnteoX enhanced anode inside its own facilities against those of its current cell manufacturer.
MB have just opened this new facility now for battery testing, but any new design and resulting cell production from that design really needs to be tested against current production methods ....


From The Mercedes site ...
Operations at the new competence centre for battery technologies in the heart of the Stuttgart-Untertürkheim plant will start in two stages. The approximately 10,000-square-metre factory for the industrial production of battery cells has started operations after a construction period of around two years. State-of-the-art production facilities in the “Industrial Cell Lab” make it possible to manufacture and test battery cells with different chemistries on an industrial scale. Several tens of thousands of cells can be produced here every year for the development of future battery generations. The production process consists of a series of automated and manual steps. It covers all battery cell manufacturing steps from electrode production to cell assembly including electrolyte filling, forming with the first charging and discharging processes and finishing.

The cell production process has a major influence on the quality of the battery. Mercedes-Benz has therefore the ambition to not only master the chemical composition of the cells, but also the industrial manufacturing process.

The new Industrial Cell Lab enables the company to gain expertise in the economical production of cells with “Mercedes-Benz DNA”. It thus complements the two existing cell laboratories: Novel cell chemistries and advanced cell designs are developed and evaluated in the “Chemistry Lab”. In the "Flexible Cell Lab", the new developments are produced and tested in automotive pouch cells.

The new building for the second stage is due to be completed by the end of this year. Among other things, this state-of-the-art test and proving centre will house a battery ramp-up factory for product and process development as well as maturity assurance for large-scale industrial production. Various functions of the test centre at the Nabern site will be transferred to the eCampus in Untertürkheim for this purpose. State-of-the-art test benches are being built on an area of around 20,000 square metres to comprehensively test and prove the safety and service life of batteries.