Merc powers up e-car race with Tesla

LONDON: Mercedes-Benz maker Daimler plans to invest more than 40 billion euros ($47 billion) by 2030 to be ready to take on Tesla in an allelectric car market, but warned the shift in technology would lead to job cuts.

Outlining its strategy for an electric future, the inventor of the modern motor car said on Thursday it would, with partners, build eight battery plants as it ramps up electric vehicle (EV) production.

From 2025, all new vehicle platforms will only make EVs, the German luxury carmaker added. “We really want to go for it … and be dominantly, if not all electric, by the end of the decade,” CEO Ola Kallenius told Reuters, adding that spending on traditional combustion-engine technology would be “close to zero” by 2025.