By Kim Richters 
 

Daimler AG's flagship Mercedes-Benz brand on Thursday unveiled steps to accelerate its transition to all-electric vehicles, announcing plans to build battery-cell factories and saying it would be ready to go fully electric by 2030, where market conditions allow.

Mercedes-Benz said it would significantly step up its research and development, investing more than 40 billion euros ($47.18 billion) in battery-electric vehicles between 2022 and 2030. It said all newly launched architectures would be electric-only from 2025 onward.

The car maker would need battery capacity of more than 200 gigawatt hours and it wants to set up eight factories for producing battery cells together with partners worldwide. These factories are in addition to an already planned network of nine plants dedicated to building battery systems, it said.

In order to insource electric-drive technology, Mercedes-Benz said it would buy U.K.-based electric motor company YASA.

"The EV shift is picking up speed--especially in the luxury segment, where Mercedes-Benz belongs. The tipping point is getting closer and we will be ready as markets switch to electric-only by the end of this decade," Daimler's Chief Executive Officer Ola Kallenius said.

Mercedes-Benz said it continued to back margin targets outlined in fall 2020.

Write to Kim Richters at kim.richters@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 22, 2021 07:49 ET (11:49 GMT)