Daimler to keep battery R&D, production in BYD EV tie-up

Shanghai, April 1 (Gasgoo.com) Although its luxury unit Mercedes-Benz has started the technical cooperation in developing electric vehicles with BYD Auto and the co-produced models are mainly for China’s market, Daimler still sticks to the batteries’ independent R&D and production.

Industry sources hold that the cooperation between the two strong competitors needs to be adjusted constantly. Mercedes-Benz’s “blue performance green strategy” is quite advanced and has defined the direction and development of the "zero-emissions road" and also announced the launch plan of a series of pure electric vehicles and the fuel-cell vehicles including the smart Fortwo.

BYD, as one of the global leaders in the battery technology field, pushed the F3DM dual-mode electric vehicles into market in December 2008, and is planning to launch the pure electric vehicle e6 soon and put it into the U.S. market at the end of the year.

In May 2009, BYD and Volkswagen have signed a memorandum of understanding to explore the vehicle electric drives as potential partners. However, Prof. Dr. Martin Winterkorn, chairman of Volkswagen AG has revealed it is still testing the Lithium battery pack of BYD, and has not decided whether to use them or not.

Today, Daimler and BYD have signed a memorandum of understanding to form a joint venture to make electric vehicles in China for the local market, and will jointly set up a technical center to develop, design and test electric vehicles and create new brands together.