Remember last year's Munich Motor Show, the Mercedes-Benz pure electric model "made a big move"?
On the evening of April 11, Beijing time, Mercedes-Benz Group elaborated on the company's strategy for the next stage of the transformation of the whole value chain at the first ESG (Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance) Forum.
More than just the renewal of models, the Mercedes-Benz Group wants to achieve transformational changes across the value chain, which, if measured in time, will include:
In 2022, production and manufacturing carbon neutrality
In 2025, new energy models will account for more than 50% of sales (including pure electricity and plug-in hybrid), and each model will provide pure electric options
In 2030, in eligible markets, fully pure electrification, the carbon footprint of each passenger car will be halved compared to 2020
In 2039, the entire value chain will be carbon neutral
What exactly does Mercedes-Benz intend to do to achieve these goals? There are a few highlights worth noting.
First of all, and the most concerned about all ordinary users, is the product level. At last year's Munich Motor Show, Mercedes-Benz unveiled a number of mass-produced or concept pure electric vehicle models such as EQE, AMG EQS53, Maybach EQS, EQG and so on. So far, Mercedes-Benz has released a total of 6 pure electric models.
Next, two different pure electric SUVs , the EQE SUV and the EQS SUV , and a lightweight pure electric commercial vehicle , the EQT , will be unveiled by the end of 2022 and expand the array of pure electric products to nine.
Mercedes-Benz said that all the next pure electric models will be born on a new pure electric platform, and the oil-to-electric models will gradually transition to the pure electric platform. Mercedes-Benz has built three pure electric platforms – the main passenger car platform MB.EA, the high-performance model exclusive AMG.EA, and the commercial vehicle exclusive VAN.EA.
It should be noted here that whether it is the AMG version of the fuel model or the AMG version of the next pure electric main sales model, it will be built on the same platform as the conventional version of the product for the time being. For example, the next Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG will be a fuel vehicle with the same platform, equipped with a 2.0T engine plug-in hybrid model, and the AMG EQS 53 4MATIC+ will also be built with the same platform as EQS. AMG. It is not known which specific products EA will serve.
Secondly, the development of the technical level, especially the battery technology level, lays the foundation for enhancing the competitiveness of electric products, including -
Mercedes-Benz has invested in European battery manufacturer ACC and cooperated with China's Fu Neng Technology and CATL to jointly develop mass-produced models of batteries
The mass production model will also use lithium iron phosphate batteries, but the technical details were not announced
In cooperation with sila NANO and other partners, it is expected that by 2025, the volume energy density of high-silicon anode batteries will reach 800Wh/L, and as a reference, the current industry-leading battery group volumetric energy density is about 300Wh/L
In cooperation with Huineng Technology and Factorial, we will jointly develop solid-state batteries and expect mass production in 2028
The third is to apply a series of environmental protection measures for decarbonization and emission reduction through technological innovation, bringing sustainable production, logistics, consumption and other value chain links.
On the user side, around 300,000 public charging stations in Europe will introduce a "green charging" function at about 300,000 public charging stations in the Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz charging network – when the customer charges the vehicle, mercedes-Benz feeds the same amount of electricity from renewable sources into the grid, that is, equivalent to the electricity generated by the customer with renewable energy.
Mercedes me Charge charging network will be divided into three categories of S\M\L products, of which S\M is prepared for home charging or plug-in hybrid models, and L is prepared for pure electric high-speed fast charging. Mercedes-Benz has developed a tiered charging system for different charging methods, and the possibility of taking renewable energy factors into the charging process will not be ruled out in the future.
However, at this stage, in order to promote EQS and other products, Mercedes-Benz has cooperated with third-party charging cooperation providers Ionity and Electrofi America in the European and American markets to provide EQS with free third-party charging services for two years. It is unclear whether the electricity consumption generated by these collaborations will also be included in the "green charging" plan in the future.
In addition, with the concept car EQXX as the environmental protection concept of the "set of the big one", the Mercedes-Benz pure electric products purchased by users will also apply more environmentally friendly materials, including cable conduits made of recyclable garbage, environmentally friendly leather and other materials.
In the production sector, Mercedes-Benz has committed to promoting the use of solar and wind energy at major production sites and purchasing additional energy through the PPAs, with the goal of meeting production demand with more than 70% renewable energy by 2030. At the same time, rainwater is collected in the production site, the internal circulation of production water is increased, and the heating sustainability of the production process is optimized.
In terms of recycling applications for battery materials, Mercedes-Benz will establish a special recycling plant in Kubenheim, Germany, to recycle end-of-life batteries using new hydrometallurgical technology, increasing the overall recovery rate including rare earth elements and conventional materials to 96%.
Mercedes-Benz's carbon reduction also extends to the upstream supply chain, with Mercedes-Benz taking a stake in startup H2 Green Steel in 2021. The Swedish-based steel technology company specializes in hydrogen-reduced iron ore steelmaking technology, and the new technology will not produce carbon emissions compared to the traditional method of reducing iron ore with carbon monoxide.
At present, in Europe, this technology has gradually begun to be applied, and has won the favor of companies such as Schaeffler, and Mercedes-Benz is the first car company to invest in the company and apply the technology. About 30% of the carbon emissions in the whole value chain of automobile production come from steelmaking, so the investment in this technology will help Mercedes-Benz significantly reduce the level of carbon emissions in the whole value chain.
Write at the end
Since last year's Munich Motor Show, the pace of the Mercedes-Benz brand towards pure electrification has been very firm, and the strength of product reserves and technical reserves is convincing.
At the ESG conference, the transformation goal proposed by Mercedes-Benz is not too aggressive only from the perspective of progress, only indicating that it is fully electrified in the "conditional market". On the road to promoting electrification, Mercedes-Benz still respects the objective change law of external market factors (including the popularity of product concepts, infrastructure penetration and other factors).
But at the same time, Mercedes-Benz is very strict about the self-transformation requirements proposed, going deep into the whole value chain dimension. Logically, car companies should give priority to putting forward strict environmental protection goals for themselves, and then introduce products to users, persuade users to choose electrified products, and become practitioners of the real environmental protection concept. The attitude shown by Mercedes-Benz is commendable.
Next, Mercedes-Benz will be releasing more information about the EQXX concept car, as well as product information for the EQS SUV. At the same time, Mercedes-Benz EQE is expected to be listed domestically within the year. We look forward to the car company with the oldest history in human beings, gradually unveiling every piece of the puzzle in the blueprint for large-scale transformation.
The author of this article is a kick car gang Wen Feng