Mercedes-Benz Group and Volkswagen Group on Tuesday signed deals with the Canadian government to secure access to Canada’s large stores of key battery materials such as lithium, cobalt, nickel and graphite, as the German companies compete for scarce supplies of raw materials with other automakers shifting to electric vehicles.
Markus Schaefer, chief technology officer at Mercedes-Benz, and outgoing Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess each signed a memorandum of understanding with François-Philippe Champagne, federal Minister of innovation, science and industry, in Toronto Tuesday morning.
The signing of the pair of battery value chain collaboration agreements followed comments from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz about the need for greater Canadian-German collaboration as global unrest roils traditional supply chains.