Mercedes-Benz to build eight battery factories in push to become electric-only | Hacker News Reader

Mercedes-Benz to build eight battery factories in push to become electric-only

techcrunch.com

26 pointschefkoch9 comments

I get such a chuckle when I look back on Tesla struggling to make their case [1] as to why Gigafactories were needed, only for legacy automakers to finally have to do the same (with less fanfare considering how Tesla sells every cell produced in either a vehicle or stationary product). People laughed at their estimate that they'd be selling 500k vehicles per year.

[1] https://www.tesla.com/sites/default/files/blog_attachments/g...

Is it true that while the battery itself is high tech and hard to engineer, the factory that makes a battery cell is no more complex than say a facemask factory, toilet paper factory, or any other mass produced goods factory?

There seem to be not too many steps (cut, coat and roll cell innards. Press can. Put innards into can. Add terminals).

If your toilet paper specs are off by 5%, what happens? Your toilet paper is a little bit too thin or thick?

EV batteries are pretty high tech, and small manufacturing faults lead to things like bursting into flames while charging (see current Bolt situation).

I don't think battery making is Intel 5nm chip fab level complicated, but I think it is a lot different from a toilet paper factory.

I think toilet paper manufacturing plants have been six sigma for decades now. If toilet paper deviates 5% from spec that’s a conscious decision.

Almost certainly really bad things happen if your toilet paper is outside of 5% spec like going out of business, losing big contracts or certifications.

Sure, just ask an industry veteran LG - they had 2 mega recalls in ~one year, with third one (GM) inching closer every day, not to mention loss of Ford contract.

"LG Energy Solutions, the company that makes the battery for the Bolt and Kona EV, has not had a good year. First, they agreed to replace the 82,000 batteries sold to Hyundai for the Kona EV, Ioniq, and Elec City buses. Although the initial rumors were from a faulty battery separator, Hyundai later said that the problem was badly folded tabs. GM emphatically pointed out that they use a different separator, and a different factory. Thus neither of those problems should apply to the Bolt fires.

Porsche recently initiated a recall on a loss of power in its Taycan LG batteries, and Ford also moved from LG in its Mustang Mach-E to SK in its Ford F-150 Lightning."

This is nothing but pandering.

Mercedes-Benz like many other car manufacturers are probably buying regulatory credits. Building more electric cars offsets the amount of credits purchased from tesla.

Going full electric is believable on the the Mercedes-Benz car line (and this might be a company killer move, not everybody wants electrics), but trucks are still very far IMO. From what i've seen so far electric trucks are not yet as cost effective.

The range on electrics are still a problem for some. As long as your drive is shorter than range, it's ok, but when you have to do a stop to recharge, it really adds up to your trip time and seems to be the biggest deterrent

When the petro cartels hold on the energy market starts to loosen, lots of other pent up innovation in niches might come forth. Im looking forward to that very much.

50% by 2025 seems like the right goal.

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