Mercedes, CATL partnership expands with EV battery production site in Hungary

Mercedes-Benz has expanded its partnership with EV battery maker CATL as the former is aiming to scale up the development and production of next-generation high-performance battery cells for an all-electric future. The upcoming factory of CATL that will be built in Debrecen, Hungary will supply battery cells to Mercedes-Benz's European production sites in Germany and Hungary.

Mercedes-Benz signed an agreement with CATL in August 2020 and with the new factory in Hungary, the premium automaker wants to stretch its global procurement of battery cells as it wants to build more than 200-gigawatt hours in battery capacity by the end of the decade. The EV battery manufacturing unit will provide battery cells for the next-generation Mercedes-Benz models.

Member of the Board of Management of Mercedes-Benz Group AG, CTO responsible for development and procurement Markus Schafer said the new state-of-art Hungary factory will help Mercedes to scale up the EV production together with the company's key partners. “With CATL we have a technology-leader as our partner to provide us – as the first and biggest customer of the new plant’s initial capacity – with top-notch CO2 neutral battery cells for our next generation EVs in Europe, hence following our local-to-local approach in procurement," added Schafer.

Last year in July, Mercedes announced that it will go fully electric by the end of the decade, wherever market conditions allow. Mercedes-Benz is also pursuing the goal to attain CO2 neutrality along the entire value chain with its Ambition 2039. Apart from its partnership with CATL, Mercedes-Benz joined hands with Stellantis and Saft to build the ACC joint venture into a European battery leader.