VW is planning six battery factories in Europe

In order to meet the increasing demand for battery cells for its e-cars, Volkswagen is pushing ahead with the expansion of production capacities. "Together with partners, we want to put a total of six cell factories into operation in Europe by 2030 and thus guarantee security of supply," said Chief Technology Officer Thomas Schmall at the group's virtual "Power Day". Volkswagen did not mention the associated investments. The industry assumes two billion euros per factory, i.e. a total of twelve billion euros for the six planned VW plants. Together, the gigafactory should have a capacity of 240 gigawatt hours. A second, larger factory is to be built in Salzgitter, Lower Saxony, not far from the VW headquarters in Wolfsburg, where a battery cell factory is already planned together with the Swedish partner Northvolt. In addition, Volkswagen and its partners want to quintuple the number of fast charging stations for electric cars in Europe to 18,000. To this end, partnerships have been agreed with the energy companies BP in Great Britain, Iberdrola in Spain and Enel in Italy. Together with BP, VW wants to set up around 8,000 fast charging points at petrol stations, most of them in Germany and Great Britain. Volkswagen plans to spend around 400 million euros on the entire program. Thousands more charging points are to be built in the USA and China. Part of the plan are also cost reductions for battery cells. For this purpose, VW wants to introduce a "standard cell" from 2023, which is to be installed in up to 80 percent of the group's electric cars by the end of the decade. Innovative production methods and the recycling of raw materials are expected to drastically reduce costs and make electric cars affordable for a broader population. With the new plans, Volkswagen is laying the foundation for expanding electric mobility more quickly. The main brand VW alone wants to double the share of pure electric cars in sales in Europe to 70 percent by 2030 compared to previous plans.