Volkswagen pushes its plans for its own battery cell manufacturing for electric cars. At the Salzgitter location, the Group has opened a pilot system for small-series battery production.
This VW wants to gain experience first, to expand the cell production piece by piece. By the turn of the year 2023/24 more than one billion euros will be invested in the pilot phase. After that, a Northvolt-operated cell factory is scheduled to go into operation.
At the newly opened research center in Salzgitter, around 300 experts are developing, testing and testing production processes for the production of lithium-ion batteries. For this, the Group is investing more than 100 million euros in the first step. From 2020, a battery cell factory with a capacity of 16 gigawatt hours is to be built at the same location.
By 2024, more than 1000 jobs are to be created
The production start is planned for the turn of the year 2023/2024. By then, more than 1,000 jobs will be created, 700 of them in a joint venture with Northvolt. Also in Salzgitter, a pilot plant for the recycling of batteries is scheduled to go into operation next year.
"By bundling the competencies at the site, we ensure that we can advance the further development of battery cells as a key component of electrification ourselves and quickly put into mass production," said VW procurement director Stefan Sommer.
A separate cell production was previously too expensive for the German automakers, they bought the components from suppliers, especially from Asia.
