Mercedes-Benz will incorporate a new, highly energy-dense
battery in its upcoming electric G-Class from 2025, it said on Tuesday, a
solution to the problem of how to power large electric cars without weighing
them down with heavy batteries.
Silicon - which Tesla said in 2020 it would build up the use
of in its batteries - provides an alternative to the more commonly used
graphite, 70% of which comes from China.
Mercedes-Benz is the first publicly announced automotive
customer of California-based battery start-up Sila Nanotechnologies, which said
in early May it was investing a figure in the low hundreds of millions of
dollars in a new plant in Washington state due to open in 2024.
The premium carmaker has a minority equity stake in the
unlisted Sila, which is also working with BMW.
Sila, founded by an ex-Tesla engineer, raised an additional
$590 million last year, boosting its valuation to an estimated $3.3 billion.
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