VW and partners to invest €20bn in battery cell business

Salzgitter, Germany — Volkswagen said on Thursday it would invest more than €20bn in a battery cell business jointly with partners, creating 20,000 jobs and reaching annual sales above €20bn by 2030 as it seeks leadership in the growing market.

The PowerCo unit will manage Volkswagen’s global battery production and research from raw material mining to recycling, and projects including energy storage systems, the carmaker said at the groundbreaking ceremony for its first European battery cell factory.

“Today is a good day for the automotive industry in Germany,” Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in a statement ahead of his speech at the ceremony.

Volkswagen has repeatedly said making enough batteries to power all cars is by far the biggest challenge of the shift to electric vehicles, and has rolled out a plan to build factories with a joint capacity of 240 gigawatt hours by 2030.

This includes six plants in Europe, of which Salzgitter is the “blueprint” for VW’s future standardised production facilities, and two in North America.

“What we have proven a million times over with Volkswagen vehicle platforms: standardising and scaling up allows for speed and cost optimisation with the highest quality,” said PowerCo CEO Frank Blome.

At the ceremony, Volkswagen presented the standardised battery cell it had announced in 2021 and which is to be used in up to 80% percent of the group’s models.

Reuters