Volkswagen sets up battery subsidiary to integrate battery value chain

Volkswagen set up an European battery company, Socio é t é Europ é enne, to integrate the battery value chain-from the processing of raw materials to the development of a unified Volkswagen battery to the management of European battery superfactories. The company's scope of business will also include a new business model: recycling discarded car batteries and recycling valuable battery raw materials.

Volkswagen is expanding its battery-related business and making it one of its core competencies. Under the management of Frank Blome, the boss of Volkswagen Battery, Soonho Ahn will lead the development of batteries. Soonho Ahn was the global head of battery development at Apple, before which he worked at LG and Samsung.

Thomas Schmall, a member of Volkswagen's technical management committee and CEO of Volkswagen Group parts company (Volkswagen Group Components), is responsible for the internal production of batteries, charging and energy and parts. "We want to provide our customers with powerful, inexpensive and sustainable car batteries, which means we need to be active at all stages of the battery value chain, which is critical to success," he said. "

Volkswagen plans to build six battery plants in Europe to meet the growing demand for batteries within the group. The super factory at (Salzgitter) in Salzjit, Lower Saxony, Germany, will produce unified batteries for Volkswagen's mass production division. Volkswagen plans to invest 2 billion euros ($2.3 billion) in the construction and operation of the plant until it starts production. The factory is expected to provide 2500 jobs in the future.

Volkswagen's battery plant in Lower Saxony, Germany, will start production in 2025. In the initial phase, the plant will have an annual battery capacity of 20 GWh,. At a later stage, Volkswagen plans to double the plant's annual battery capacity to 40 GWh. Volkswagen's plant in Lower Saxony, Germany, will centralize R & D, planning and production control under one roof, so the plant will become the battery center of the Volkswagen Group.

Volkswagen also plans to build two more battery superfactories in Spain and Eastern Europe, the location of which will be decided in the first half of 2022. Volkswagen also plans to open two more battery plants in Europe by 2030.

In addition to the five battery superfactories mentioned above, Northvolt, a Swedish battery start-up with a 20 per cent stake, will build Volkswagen's sixth battery factory in Skelleftea in northern Sweden, which will start producing batteries for Volkswagen's high-end cars from 2023.