Found today on Der Spiegel ( Elektroautos: Li-Tec schließt einzige deutsche Batteriezellen-Fabrik - SPIEGEL ONLINE )
Sad news (interesting for Tesla ?):
Electric Cars: Daimler closes Germanies only battery cell factory
The future of the E-Car-Battery does not rest in Germany. The only factory
producing respective cells closes soon, according to information
available to Der Spiegel. The Government wants to put a million electric
cars on the road by 2020 regardless.
Hamburg - The only german factory producing battery cells for electric
cars will be closed. Just for about another year the company Li-Tec in the saxon
town of Kamenz will be producing accumulator cells. The company is a
subsidiary of Daimler Corporation.
"Our cells are very good but much too expensive at our current production numbers"
Daimler-Manager Harald Kröger reasons the shutdown in a Spiegel interview.
Last week, Daimler internally pronounced the end of the factory to it´s 250
employees, of which more than half can remain employed within the corporation.
Only massproduction makes factories like that profitable. That´s why it was part
of the Daimler-calculus that other car corporations would participate and also let
their cells be produced in Kamenz. But possible partners failed to materialize.
Now the corporation changes it´s strategy. "We realized that a car manufacturer does
not necessarily have to produce the cells themselves", says Kröger.
For electromobility in Germany this is another setback. The Government wants to
put a million electric cars on the road by 2020. Development of electromobility
is also part of it´s strategy to reduce CO2-emissions by 40% until 2020.
:cursing:
Sad news (interesting for Tesla ?):
Electric Cars: Daimler closes Germanies only battery cell factory
The future of the E-Car-Battery does not rest in Germany. The only factory
producing respective cells closes soon, according to information
available to Der Spiegel. The Government wants to put a million electric
cars on the road by 2020 regardless.
Hamburg - The only german factory producing battery cells for electric
cars will be closed. Just for about another year the company Li-Tec in the saxon
town of Kamenz will be producing accumulator cells. The company is a
subsidiary of Daimler Corporation.
"Our cells are very good but much too expensive at our current production numbers"
Daimler-Manager Harald Kröger reasons the shutdown in a Spiegel interview.
Last week, Daimler internally pronounced the end of the factory to it´s 250
employees, of which more than half can remain employed within the corporation.
Only massproduction makes factories like that profitable. That´s why it was part
of the Daimler-calculus that other car corporations would participate and also let
their cells be produced in Kamenz. But possible partners failed to materialize.
Now the corporation changes it´s strategy. "We realized that a car manufacturer does
not necessarily have to produce the cells themselves", says Kröger.
For electromobility in Germany this is another setback. The Government wants to
put a million electric cars on the road by 2020. Development of electromobility
is also part of it´s strategy to reduce CO2-emissions by 40% until 2020.
:cursing: