Eyeing Tesla, Mercedes plans to greatly ramp up battery production as it plans new electric car models and begins selling its refrigerator-sized home battery in the US.
German auto giant Daimler, owner of Mercedes-Benz, is putting the finishing touches on a new factory for churning out electric car batteries that will rival the sprawling and mostly-completed Tesla Gigafactory in Nevada.
Daimler’s plant, built on a 50-acre site near the eastern German city of Dresden, is scheduled to open next year and will double the company’s battery production capacity. The increase is necessary, because not only is Mercedes competing with Tesla when it comes to electric cars, it also last week announced plans to bring refrigerator-sized batteries for homes with solar panels to the US.
Solar energy company Vivint will sell and service the batteries, which Mercedes unveiled in 2015 and are already sold in some countries. California is their first US destination; sales will begin in the state by the end of June. The typical home installation will cost between $5,000 and $13,000 and involve several batteries, for a maximum capacity of 20 kilowatts per hour, The New York Times reported.
With those prices, the Mercedes batteries aren’t exactly entering a mainstream market, but Tesla is already offering its Powerwall home battery in California and other states, so there is some competition. Both companies’ success in getting homeowners interested in solar will depend on their ability to eventually lower prices, which requires the massive production capacity increases that the Gigafactory and the Dresden facility could provide.
And don’t forget about the cars: just as Tesla ramps up the Gigafactory to begin mass-producing its mid-market Model 3, Mercedes said it plans to have electric cars make up as much as 25 percent of its model lineup by 2025.
