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Daimler aims to take on electric car leader Tesla

The German luxury carmaker and owner of Mercedes-Benz, Daimler is planning to invest around to $47 billion to makes its way into the electric car market. The company aims to make this investment by 2030 to take on electric car leader Tesla. However, there is a downside to this development as the shift in technology could lead to job cuts.

The EV dream

Giving an outline of its plans of going electric, Daimler said that it will collaborate with its partners in building eight battery plants to accelerate its production of electric vehicles. The company also said that by 2025 only electric vehicles (EVs) will be made in all new vehicle platforms. Daimler CEO Ola Kallenius has said that the company’s spending on traditional combustion-engine technology is expected to go down to almost zero in the next 4 years, according to a report in Reuters.

Kallenius also said that the debate on building the last combustion engine is not relevant and the focus should instead be on how quickly a company can scale up to be electric in its entirety.

Volvo and General Motors

Car manufacturers Volvo and General Motors have also pledged to go all-electric soon as they try to narrow the gap with the current industry leader, Tesla. Volvo aims to be fully electric by 2030, while General Motors targets to achieve the same by 2035.

Audi

German luxury carmaker Audi launched its EV e-Tron SUV in India recently, making it the third company after Mercedes-Benz and Jaguar to enter the EV market in India. Priced between Rs 99.99 lakh and Rs 1.16 crore, orders for the e-Tron SUV are now open and deliveries could be expected soon.

Audi has plans of expanding its EV portfolio in India and will launch another model later this year. On a global scale, Audi aims to have over 20 EVs in its portfolio in order to achieve its target of going all-electric by 2033.

Suzuki Motor Corp

Suzuki Motor Corp is expected to enter the electric car market by 2025 and it will begin its journey from India, a market where it has a stronghold. As per the company, there are plans of releasing an all-electric model that could roughly cost around 1.5 million yen or Rs 10-11 lakh, inclusive of all government subsidies.