BERLIN (Reuters) – Daimler will produce the first in-house electric motor at its oldest plant in Berlin, the carmaker said on Thursday, providing relief to workers worried that the diesel motor production site was on the brink of deep job cuts.
Workers who feared for their positions after Daimler said in September 2020 its Berlin site would end production of the 6-cylinder diesel motor within a year would also be offered retraining in software and coding, the German company said.
Investment in the Berlin-Marienfelde plant, previously pinned at a two-digit million euro amount, will rise to a low three-digit million euro amount in the next six years, Daimler said.
The motor, known as an axial-flux motor and designed by the British startup YASA Daimler acquired earlier this year, weighs a fraction of its diesel equivalent and can boost the range of an EV by up to 7%, YASA’s founder told Reuters in July.
(Corrects headline and paragraph 1 to remove reference to 2022 as no start date was provided for axial-flux motor production)
(Reporting by Victoria Waldersee; Editing by Zuzanna Szymanska and David Evans)
