Volkswagen (VW) is rapidly developing partnerships with companies that should help German autoconecerna radically increase production and sales of electric vehicles. For this, it also rises through the supply chain to obtain control over the production of batteries.
In addition, VW intends to increase the number of powerful recharging stations in Europe five times already by 2025
The company reported on Monday that by the end of the decade will build or operate six plants for the production of batteries with a cumulative annual capacity of 240 GW h. They will supply almost 5 million electric vehicles annually and allow VW to implement an ambitious plan for the transition to clean transport.
The German autoconecern expects that by 2030, under the VW brand in Europe, there will be 70% of sales on the electric car, and in the USA and China - more than 50%.
Governments worldwide tighten the norms of harmful emissions, so the autocompany is trying to quickly increase the production of electric vehicles. But for this they need to ensure the growing supply of batteries. The Chinese Geely (she also belongs to Volvo Cars, which intends to fully switch to electric cars by 2030) on Monday, it reported that it will invest $ 5 billion in the construction of the Battery Plant in Ganzhou with a capacity of 42 GW in a year.
Tesla rose even higher on the supply chain, declaring in early March about partnership with the manufacturer of nickel and lithium in New Caledonia (Island in the Pacific Ocean) to secure the supply of metals necessary for batteries.
Within the framework of the new VW strategy, increased the share in the Swedish startup Northvolt, which produces batteries (it was 20%). In addition, the concern bought the Northvolt share in the project on the construction of the plant in the German Salzgitter, which since 2025 will have to produce batteries with a capacity of 40 GW hours per year. Specific details of both transactions were not announced.
VW Top placed a $ 14 billion order from Northvolt for the next decade. This will allow the first Northvolt gigabric, located in the north of Sweden near the Northern Polar Circle, become the leading supplier VW and significantly increase the capacity compared to the planned maximum of 40 GW h. Now the startup, which was founded by two former Tesla manager, Consumers are more than $ 27 billion.
The new strategy should allow VW to ensure the supply of batteries for the successful transition to the production of electric vehicles and competition with Tesla Ilona Mask. It will also reduce the dependence of the German company from leading global battery manufacturers - Korean LG Chem and Chinese CATL, which also supply them to other autocompany.
"Volkswagen is our key investor, a client and partner, and we will continue to work hard to provide it with the most environmentally friendly batteries on the planet, while it quickly expands its fleet of electric cars," said Peter Karlsson, co-founder and general director Northvolt. Thomas Schmalle, director for the supply of VW components, called the Swedish company a key partner, which can be expanded.
VW also stated on Monday, which will reduce the cost of batteries using standard electroplating formats and turning on the following generation technology, which will allow the use of fewer materials and store more energy.
In addition, VW has a partnership with a quantumscape silicon valley startup, which develops a solid-state battery, which will reduce charging time up to 12 minutes. To commercialize this technology, you will need to do a lot, VW reported, but it hopes to start installing such batteries in cars after 2025
To promote a rapid increase in electric car park, VW also intends to increase the number of charge stations in Europe five times to 18,000 in Europe. For this, the company, according to its report, has signed an agreement with BP to place devices for quick recharging at its refills in different countries Europe.
Translated Mikhail Overchenko