Volkswagen is increasing the pressure on Tesla.
The group wants to massively increase its production capacities for battery cells by 2030.
Update from March 15, 2:02 p.m.:
Volkswagen and partners want to put six gigafactories for battery cells into operation in Europe by 2030.
The first two plants are planned in Salzgitter as well as in Skelleftea in the north of Sweden, VW is currently examining possible further locations, announced Chief Technology Officer Thomas Schmall on Monday.
VW works council chairman Bernd Osterloh calls for a second location for Germany.
Most recently, Emden was considered a possible location.
VW builds the Passat there.
The development and expansion of our own production capacities for components for electric models is a key issue in the automotive industry.
In order to be able to meet the more stringent climate targets, manufacturers have to bring more vehicles with alternative drives into their respective fleets.
At the same time, there are bottlenecks in the necessary battery cells - and a considerable dependency on suppliers, especially from Asia.
The investments announced by VW are also seen as a response to the plans of US rival Tesla.
Its boss Elon Musk had declared that his new electric car plant near Berlin should become the world's largest battery factory.
From 2023, Volkswagen will also be introducing a standardized, proprietary cell type.
This should help to reduce the variety of the individual variants used.
The battery costs could then also decrease “gradually by up to 50 percent” for entry-level models.
In addition, VW wants to expand the public charging network for electric cars in Europe with energy and mineral oil companies.
A good 18,000 fast charging points are to be operated on the continent by 2025.
VW Power Day: Wolfsburg-based automaker announces new plans today - huge speculation
First report from March 15, 12:54 p.m. - Volkswagen * boss Herbert Diess never made a secret of his admiration for the Californian electric car pioneer Tesla.
Diess praised the competitor at the end of 2019 and has since borrowed countless loans from the Californians.
Similar to the industry leader, the software for the new e-runabout like the ID.3 will soon be available "over-the-air", i.e. via the cellular network or WLAN, the developer capacities will be massively increased and now there is - in the best Tesla tradition - also a Power Day, on which everything revolves around the topic of batteries.
From 1 p.m. on this Monday (March 15), the Wolfsburg-based company wants to give a deep insight into their current e-plans.
Little information was leaked in the run-up to the event.
But observers speculate that Diess is likely to name numerous details about future cell requirements in the group as well as possible partners.
The Wolfsburg-based company is currently working with the Korean specialists LG Energy, SKI and Samsung as well as the Chinese industry giant CATL.
The Wolfsburg-based company also wants to set up its own battery cell production facility with the Swedish cell manufacturer Northvolt in Salzgitter.
It is scheduled to start production in 2024.
At VW, 70 percent of all new vehicles should be e-cars by 2030.
Previously, the company had targeted a share of 35 percent for 2030.
With the doubled share of electric vehicles, however, the group also has to secure the supply of battery cells.
This is considered to be the central challenge.
VW: Group facing massive expansion of cell production capacities
For the project with Northvolt, this could mean a considerable expansion of production capacities.
But it is also conceivable that Diess will announce the construction of completely new gigafactories.
One possible location is Emden, where VW is currently producing the Passat.
* Merkur.de is part of IPPEN.MEDIA.
