Recently, the wave of electrification has accelerated, and the demand for batteries in the market is becoming higher and higher. In order to take the initiative and no longer be subject to the upstream battery manufacturers, car companies have entered the battery field. Volkswagen released the blueprint for home-made batteries, Tesla announced plans to produce batteries, and Ford spent $185 million on building a battery development center.
Now Volkswagen has taken the lead and dropped another blockbuster by announcing plans to spin off its battery business.
"at least in the battery business, anything is possible," Thomas Schmall, the chief technology officer, said in an interview with the German newspaper Shimbun. However, it is difficult for a single battery factory to go public, and the whole project must be considered at a higher level. While the company is looking for technology partners, it is also looking for outside investors.
However, Volkswagen's ambitions do not stop there. The established car company in Europe and the United States hopes to control the entire industry process on its own.
In partnering with Asian battery head companies, Volkswagen hopes to develop a partnership model that leaves room for manoeuvre. "We want to make our own batteries, but we can also get them from the outside," Volkswagen said.
In order to reduce its dependence on these battery suppliers, Volkswagen also included raw materials in the idea. Schmall said that raw materials account for up to 80% of the cost of battery production, so the battery sector must go deep into the supply chain and actively participate in the raw material business.
But the plan is radical but not greedy. Volkswagen plans to account for 20% of battery production; it hopes to seek the help of technical partners and external capital to shorten study time and build its own battery factory as soon as possible.
As for the competition with the existing battery leaders, Volkswagen has 12 brands and a production capacity of 10 million electric vehicles a year, and is optimistic about the future growth of the battery market.
In the future, Volkswagen plans to build six superfactories in Europe to produce electric car batteries by 2030, with the capacity to support 5 million cars. Volkswagen also hopes to produce a "standard battery" of the same size and performance for 80 per cent of the group's models.
Having said so much, the development technology of batteries is actually the focus of the public.
Schmall said that the real value of Volkswagen's future battery business lies in the painstaking efforts of the know-how, behind it. The company's Salzgit battery research and development center will have 500 technicians by the end of the year, and plans to double that number as soon as possible.
In addition, Volkswagen is currently working with Quantumscape to develop solid-state batteries, which are expected to be mass-produced in 2025 or 2026. The company has high hopes for R & D results, hoping to greatly improve the battery life of electric vehicles.
