Dr. Stefan Hartung, member of the board of management of Robert Bosch GmbH, explains: “For Bosch, the complete acquisition of EM-motive is the next logical step on the path to becoming the market leader for electromobility.” Bosch and Daimler set up electric motor manufacturer EM-motive GmbH as a fifty-fifty joint venture in 2011. Since then, it has manufactured some 450,000 electric motors. A complete takeover by Bosch was already laid down as an option in the joint venture agreement.

The takeover of Maxwell Technologies by Tesla is to be completed with an exchange of shares in Q2 2019. The California-based company specializes in energy storage and power supply solutions. Maxwell’s technology for the production of super capacitors with a lower energy density, yet significantly higher power density than batteries is of particular interest to Tesla. Since these can be charged and discharged extremely quickly, they could improve electric vehicle charging in the long term, to complement high-voltage batteries.