Yes, But the article is a bit confusing in one part. It says that Bosch are basically divesting completely from battery cells but the article states that they believe they need to understand the cell technology but not to manufacture the cells. So I would imagine they would still have some battery cell testing and labs and the like. What is clear to me is that Bosch understood clearly the requirement was to invest $20B over 10 years or so to manufacture cells and they decided that was to risky. But they understood that it was required. Everyone assumes that someone else is going to do it. I think they all assume China will do and dump cells on the market at a loss just like they did with solar. I think that is miss guided. For one, batteries are really really heavy and very expensive to ship half way around the world. This is why Tesla is the only smart company out there. As prices drop, the logistics around raw materials and shipping finished cells around the world is going to become a larger and larger percent of the cost of the cells. Just using dummy numbers, lets say its $200/KWh for Daimler to buy cells from S. Korea. The cost to ship that might only be $10/KWh and the price for S. Korea to get the raw materials from around the world might be $20/KWh including the trip from the mines to where its refined and then a final trip to Korea. If nothing else changes except the cost to manufacture the cells and the price drops to $150/KWh, then that $30/KWh is a much larger percent. As the price drops to $100/KWh it could be as much as 30% of the total cost of the cells. If Tesla has a $0 cost to ship cells because they do not leave the Gigafactory. Tesla is also working on sourcing materials from near where the plant is manufacturing cells. The logistical overhead for Tesla could be as much as 10-15% cheaper then Daimler who might source cells from China or S. Korea. This is not good when you are trying to be competitive. Also, Tesla has a partnership with Panasonic where Tesla is committed to purchase large numbers of cells at a fixed rate that is lower because of the commitment. Is Daimler, an ICEv company going to committed to buy Billions of dollars in cells to get a good price? My best guess is that the competition will be in a constant situation where they are paying more for cells that are of lower quality and thus require better packs to make them both safe and competitive with Tesla in charging and density. You can see this today where you have a car like the Ipace that has a 90KWh pack, is smaller then a model 3 and has a range of about 250miles, which is 60+ less then the Model 3 with a 75KWh pack. That is an impossible hill to climb when it comes to competition. You must really love Jag to buy that vehicle. Why would Daimler have any better pricing? They are no more committed to going Electric and they have not done things required to get prices down. There is only one way, massive scale and highly compressed logistics and supply chain. Scale allows you to buy a company like Ghromann to fully automate the manufacturing process.
