In response to the risk of battery supply, Mercedes-Benz wrote "Funeng" on the left and "Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd." on the right.

On the evening of August 5, Mercedes-Benz announced that Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd. will become the head supplier of Mercedes-Benz batteries, and the strategic partnership between the two parties will enter a new stage. Just a month ago, Mercedes-Benz just announced that it holds about 3% of the shares of Funeng Technology (Ganzhou) Co., Ltd. In the short term, the domestic power battery field moves frequently, which also shows that Mercedes-Benz hopes to accelerate again on the electrified track.

According to the announcement, Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd. and Mercedes-Benz will jointly develop high-tech battery technology. The agreement signed by the two parties covers many fields of power battery technology, including providing batteries and modules for Mercedes-Benz passenger car products and providing overall battery systems for Mercedes-Benz light commercial vehicle products. In addition, Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd. will also provide modular battery pack design for some projects. According to the plan of both parties, in 20021year, Mercedes-Benz will launch EQS pure electric luxury car equipped with battery module of contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Ltd., with a cruising range of more than 700 kilometers and a charging speed twice as fast as that of existing models.

Source: Official of Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd.

Marcus Schaefer, member of the board of directors and chief operating officer of Mercedes-Benz, said, "Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd. will become the head supplier of Mercedes-Benz to ensure the battery supply of the next generation EQ products in the next few years." These remarks also revealed the position of Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd. in the supplier system of Mercedes-Benz power batteries.

In fact, this is not the first time that Mercedes-Benz has cooperated with a power battery company in China. In early July this year, Daimler became a shareholder in Funeng Technology (Ganzhou) Co., Ltd. In addition, as the parent company of Mercedes-Benz, Daimler also signed a comprehensive business cooperation agreement with Funeng Technology. According to the agreement, Funeng Technology will provide power batteries for new electric vehicles launched by Mercedes-Benz around the world in the future 10.

Recently, Mercedes-Benz has "overweight" several times in the power battery market, which shows that only one power battery supplier in China cannot meet its demand. Behind its huge demand is to avoid huge carbon emission fines. According to the regulation of EU 20 14, by 2020, the average carbon dioxide emission of 95% of new cars sold within the EU must not exceed 95g per kilometer, and all new cars will be covered by 202 1. If this requirement is not met, new cars that exceed the emission standards will be fined 95 euros/gram/kilometer per car.

Source: Mercedes-Benz official

Therefore, comprehensively improving the production capacity of new energy vehicles has become an important task for Mercedes-Benz in 2020. The EQ model that Mercedes-Benz relied on in the initial stage of electrification transformation is currently subject to the weak supply of power batteries. From this perspective, Mercedes-Benz's shareholding in Funeng Technology and strategic cooperation with Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd. are all in response to the power battery supply crisis. This is very similar to the joint venture of Audi and Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd. in Guo Xuan Hi-Tech.

If we deeply analyze automobile manufacturers and power battery suppliers, it is not difficult to find that automobile manufacturers generally cooperate with many power battery suppliers. In addition to ensuring the supply of batteries, the more important reason is to expect suppliers to compete in this context and establish a balanced supplier portfolio.

Some insiders once said, "The best quality can be achieved through competition among suppliers. In the process of promoting electrification, an important opportunity is to have multiple suppliers to choose from. If you only bundle one supplier, it is actually very dangerous. " Today, Mercedes-Benz has purchased power batteries from different partners in the global market, which will make its electrification transformation smoother.

This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.