Reuters reported on October 6th that PowerCo, a battery division of Volkswagen Group, and Belgian material technology company Umicore announced that their joint venture worth $2.9 billion in battery components will be named IONWAY.

In December 2021, Volkswagen Group announced a strategic partnership with Umicore; in September 2022, the two sides announced the establishment of a joint venture to produce battery precursors and cathode materials from 2025. At that time, the two sides said they would share the costs and investments of the joint venture equally, and subsequent profits would also be shared equally.

The joint venture's headquarters will be located in Brussels, the capital of Belgium, with the goal of reaching 160 GWh of annual capacity by 2030, enough to power about 2.2 million electric vehicles. On October 6th, the two sides reaffirmed the above capacity targets, with a total investment of $23.2 billion.