Battery cell production
25.02.2019
I in Germany should According to the VW plans, up to three giant factories will be built, reports Manager Magazin. They are talking about locations near plants that will manufacture electric cars in the future. The VW Group is reacting to the increasing pressure from employee representatives and politics as well as to the prospect of government subsidies.
In December 2018, VW boss Herbert Diess announced that it would participate in the VW electric car plans at a battery production. But entering into in-house battery cell production is also an option that is being checked internally. Diess could work out the stake with one of the strategic battery cell suppliers (SKI, CATL, LG Chem, Samsung). Background: For the Volkswagen Group alone, we forecast an annual demand of almost 150 gigawatt hours by 2023. At the moment, however, there is only capacity for 20 gigawatt hours in Europe.
Suppliers are fighting back
The plans to set up their own battery cell production are not very popular with current suppliers. In particular, LG Chem is defending itself, according to the Manager Magazin report. The Koreans threatened to stop delivering if VW went into production with the Korean company SK Innovation. And possibly from now on.
By 2025, VW wants to have developed more than 50 all-electric vehicles in the group and offer customers a corresponding variety. To this end, the Volkswagen Group intends to invest a total of 44 billion euros in electric mobility over the next five years.
