Daimler announces $11 billion investment in electric vehicles

Daimler has been fleshing out its electric vehicle strategy over the last year and a big part of it came to life in Paris earlier this year with the unveiling of Mercedes’s new ‘EQ’ brand and the first vehicle under that electric brand: ‘Generation EQ’.

The German automaker admitted that it fell behind in the electric vehicle segment, but it hopes to come out on top by 2025 with 25% of its production being electric. Now an executive confirmed that the company is planning a $11 billion investment for the first series of vehicles to come out.

Daimler board member Thomas Weber told German newspaper last week (via Reuters):

“For this push we want to invest up to 10 billion euros,” he said, adding three of the models will be Smart branded cars and that thanks to larger batteries they will be able to increase their cruising range up to 700 kilometers.

We already know about the luxury SUV under the Mercedes-Benz brand and one more SUV and two electric sedans are expected to follow.

Weber added that there are a few other models we don’t know about yet:

“By 2025 we want to develop 10 electric cars based on the same architecture,”

It looks like Daimler and Volkswagen are both very serious about electric vehicle production over the next 10 years. While most automakers have committed to releasing a number of electric cars, few are committing a significant percentage of their total output to be electric.

VW is among the most committed with plans to build 2 to 3 million all-electric cars a year and to unveil 30 new models by 2025 and now Daimler seems to be following with this new $11 billion investment for 25% of its output to be electric.

Daimler already announced significant investments in battery production, while VW is currently considering also building its own battery division.

As for the other major German automaker, BMW had an early lead in electric vehicle production, but it has since displayed more caution in the segment following the lower than anticipated sales of the BMW i3. While some of its plans for future EVs have been pushed, the company recently started greenlighting more vehicles for production.

It looks like the German automakers are now determined not to be left behind when it comes to transitioning to electric transport. Tesla is also looking to tap into Germany’s engineering talent for its own electric vehicle and manufacturing programs with the recent launch of ‘Tesla Advanced Automation Germany’.