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EQB will now be built in Hungary instead of the now-sold Smart plant in Hambach |
Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz has updated details of its EV launches and source plants.
The EQA will be launched on 20 January, 2021 and its production launch at the Rastatt plant “went smoothly”, according to the automaker.
As with the EQC built in Bremen and Beijing and the EQV at Vitoria, all already on sale , the Rastatt EVs are made on the same line as ICEs and hybrids.
EQB production – originally scheduled for the Smart plant at Hambach, now sold to Ineos – will begin in 2021 at the Hungarian plant in Kecskemet for most markets and at BBAC in Beijing for China sales.
Plant preparation, including employee training and renovation work, is already under way. The compact SUV EQB will be the first purely electrically powered production vehicle built in Hungary. The PHEV A-Class will also be produced in Kecskemet in addition to Rastatt.
Production of the EQS electric luxury sedan will begin in H1 2021 at Factory 56 at Sindelfingen. S-Class, Maybach S-Class and the EQS will all be produced on the same flexible line.
Bremen will begin production of the EQE business sedan in the second half of 2021 and the Beijing SOP will follow soon after.
Beijing by then will be building four EQ models.
Tuscaloosa is also preparing for production of the EQE SUV and EQS SUV in 2022, also on the same flexible line as ICE and PHEV SUVs.
In 2022 eight EQ electric vehicles will be produced at seven locations on three continents.
Ineos will build Smart EQ Fortwo models under contract in Hambach with the Forfour made in Novo Mesto, Slovenia.
A next generation of Smart EVs will be produced by a JV in China between Mercedes-Benz and Zhejiang Geely.
Batteries
Two plants in Kamenz (Germany), have been producing EV battery systems since 2012. A second battery factory at the site began operations in 2018 and has been producing EQC batteries since 2019. Systems for the EQA were introduced recently.
Mercedes-Benz and BAIC also jointly set up local battery production at an existing location in Beijing which supplies the nearby vehicle plant which started EV output with the EQC in 2019.
EQB and EQE battery systems will follow.
In 2020 Jawor Poland started producing PHEV batteries for the C, E and S Class. It will add systems in the coming year for the EQA and EQB.
Two plants at Untertuerkheim will produce battery systems for the EQS in the first half of 2021, along with the EQE pack.
Another battery plant is currently being built in Bruehl for plug-in hybrids starting 2022.
A battery plant is currently being built in the immediate vicinity of Tuscaloosa to supply battery systems for two models.
Another battery plant at Sindelfingen is planned.
Thonburi Automotive Assembly Plant (TAAP) has a battery production facility in Bangkok, Thailand which began operations in 2019. Battery systems for the current C, E and S-Class PHEVs are manufactured at the site and preparations are being made there to manufacture EQ drive batteries.
Mercedes plans electrified vehicles should account for more than half of sales by 2030.
It delivered 45,000 EVs and PHEVs worldwide in the third quarter of 2020.