Volkswagen invests billions in battery factories

There is no other German or even European manufacturer that focuses as consistently on electric mobility as Volkswagen. The Wolfsburg-based company has set itself the goal of becoming Tesla’s biggest competitor.

For this, you need one thing: rechargeable batteries. And these are built-in Salzgitter. The EU recently decided to end combustion engines and even if there are some who will not believe this and also fantasize about e-fuels, most industry experts are clear: the future of passenger cars lies in electric propulsion. To date, Tesla has been at the forefront of this field, as evidenced by the fact that the company focused on pure electric vehicles before any other company.

To be able to compete seriously with Tesla, Volkswagen needs one thing above all: rechargeable batteries. Because these are currently scarce and this means that you have to wait many months and even years for a new car. Wolfsburg wants to change that and has now laid the foundation for its first cell factory.

First of at least six new cell factories

By 2030, the automotive group will invest more than 20 billion euros in Salzgitter and later also other locations. A new subsidiary called PowerCo was established for the implementation. The annual sales potential of the new subsidiary also amounts to 20 billion euros and in the long term, about 20,000 jobs are to be created in connection with PowerCo. According to the cell factory in Salzgitter, called “SalzGiga”, it will not remain the only production site of its kind Volkswagen this is the start of “a global battery offensive”. Six cell factories will be built in Europe and later in North America.

First SalzGiga batteries in three years

The Salzgitter plant should deliver the first battery in 2025 and when fully completed, production should reach an annual capacity of 40 GWh. According to the manufacturer, this is enough for about 500,000 electric vehicles. By 2030, Volkswagen aims to work with partners to operate six-cell plants with a total capacity of 240 GWh.