Volkswagen’s supervisory board has announced the automaker’s entry into battery cell production and is ready to invest one billion euros. Depending on the political circumstance, VW wants to set-up production in Germany at its Salzgitter site in Lower Saxony.
The decision to build battery cells for the Volkswagen in Europe is not entirely unexpected as the Group had recently bundled all battery competencies including recycling and R&D in the new Component unit in Salzgitter, a town in Lower Saxony. Still, tonight’s announcement must be considered an “important milestone,” Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess commented after the Board met on the eve of the general meeting.
I Volkswagens batteristrategi kan man läsa följande, och det bör ju vara steg nr 3 som avses här då. Produktion under ett partnerskap med en leverantör, liknande upplägg som Tesla och Panasonic har kan man misstänka.Yet competition aside, the Board confirmed the desired location for the battery cell facility to be Salzgitter and also that the Group is to “move forward with setting up a battery cell production facility in Europe under a partnership,” with SK Innovation having previously been rumoured as potential partner. Supervisory Board Chairman Hans Dieter Pötsch added that at the same time, “we wish to expand our production capacities in Europe to support our growth plans” overall.
https://www.volkswagen-newsroom.com/en/ ... group-4982• In the first stage, strategic partnerships with the established cell suppliers are a crucial basis
for supplying batteries for vehicles as part of the electrification offensive. They are long-term
partnerships that lastingly secure a large part of the batteries that are needed and deliver the
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requisite technological leaps. SKI, LG Chem and CATL have been defined as the main suppliers
for the first wave of electromobility.
• An additional objective is to build substantial know-how in research into and development
and production of lithium-ion batteries. The Group has pooled responsibility for development,
procurement and quality assurance activities for all battery cells for the Group at the Center
of Excellence (CoE) in Salzgitter. The Group will start pilot production from the second half of
2019 on.
• Since investing in cell production is highly capital-intensive, what are termed gigafactories
will be established with partners in the next stage; the focus of that will also be on potential
locations in Germany.
• In the subsequent phase, the Group plans to establish cell production facilities for lithium-ion
batteries and solid-state batteries – both in Europe. The partnership with the U.S. company
QuantumScape is an integral part of the Group’s battery strategy, in particular with regard to
cell production for solid-state batteries.
https://www.electrive.com/2019/05/13/vo ... l-factory/
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