Volkswagen has started building a “Giga Factory” for electric car batteries

The Volkswagen Construction started first Giga Factory for Electric Car Batteries In Germany. The Salzgitter unit will receive a huge investment of more than 20 billion euros by 2030 and promises to employ about 20,000 people in Europe. Like the Tesla And other brands, including General motorsVolkswagen calls the new plant the “Giga Factory” because it’s the size of 30 football fields.

with management PorverkoThe unit will have an annual capacity of 40 gigawatt-hours and will supply batteries to about 500,000 electric vehicles. In this way, the new company will be responsible for managing international operations, as well as taking care of the development of cell technology. Production is also expected to start in mid-2025.

Notably, PowerCo will also be at the forefront of the entire value chain of batteries and equipment supply from VW plants. Thus, the idea is that in the future, new products will be included, such as storage systems for the energy grid. According to the information, there are already projects for three more plants, and the next one will be in Valencia, Spain. However, in addition to Europe, the brand is also considering moving other units to North America.

flexible batteries

As an important step in Volkswagen’s mobility strategy, the group revealed that it intends to work with standardized prismatic battery cells. This means, according to the brand, that they are products that offer new, flexible chemistry and are compatible with about 80% of models. In this way, it will allow to reduce the total costs by 50%.

Based on this, the plan is to operate six cell plants in Europe by 2030, and to increase the total volume from 40 GWh to 240 GWh. According to Volkswagen itself, some prototypes are already being tested. So far, these models have shown high performance in terms of autonomy, recharge time and safety.

“The battery cell business is one of the pillars of our ‘New Cars’ strategy, which will make Volkswagen a leading provider of sustainable, program-based mobility. Establishing our own cell plant is a huge project both from a technical and economic point of view.” Volkswagen AG CEO said, Herbert Dess.

Standardization and expansion

While it is a long-term project, Volkswagen says it will set new standards for sustainability and innovation. This attack will be an important step to counter other battery manufacturers, for example, BYD – What or what overtake Tesla.

Recently, even a study Made by Bloomberg Intelligence Tesla said it could lose the sales position to Volkswagen. This is because the German brand, in addition to having a unified portfolio, provides more and more autonomy and additional systems for its models, not to mention investments in the creation of batteries and supplies.

To continue growth, VW has already confirmed that there will be standardization not only in equipment and structures, but also in products, processes and services. Therefore, factories can be quickly converted to new production lines. According to the German, each plant will be 100% powered by renewable energy sources.