Volkswagen is investing heavily in setting up a European battery production chain. The group announced at an earlier stage that there should be six battery factories in Europe by 2030. Now the brand has entered into three collaborations with various parties aimed at improving the batteries themselves.
The current energy transition in the automotive sector requires a new kind of knowledge for existing car manufacturers. That is one of the reasons that many brands choose not to develop everything themselves, but to enter into strategic partnerships with existing companies. Volkswagen is now doing this with materials specialist Umicore, battery company 24M Technologies and raw material company Vulcan Energy Resources. The three collaborations are separate from each other, but ultimately all should contribute to the near future that Volkswagen can produce advanced batteries on a large scale in a cost-efficient and environmentally friendly way.
Volkswagen collaborations.
Among other things, Umicore will supply the materials for the cathode of the batteries. In addition, Umicore is working with Volkswagen to optimize costs and make the production process more efficient. At a later stage, Volkswagen and Umicore also want to tackle the recycling of batteries together. 24M Technologies is helpful to Volkswagen as the start-up is working on its own way, called ‘SemiSolid’, to improve the current build-up of its lithium-ion battery. This should ensure, among other things, that the CO2 emissions from battery production decrease and the factories can be up to 40 percent smaller. The collaboration with Vulcan Energy in turn concerns the supply of lithium from Germany, which, according to the company, can be produced CO2-neutrally from geothermal brine. The supply of lithium should start in 2026.
Put up
Volkswagen’s new partnerships thus follow the group’s previously announced goal to have six operational battery plants in Europe by 2030. It is now building one of these together with Northvolt in Sweden, while Volkswagen is also working on a battery factory in Salzgitter. The first should be operational in 2023, the second in 2025. Besides Volkswagen, Stellantis is also investing in the construction of European battery factories and the European Union is also making subsidies available for the construction of such factories. However, there are also inherent dangers lurking here.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl