Volkswagen has made two big announcements, which are the launch of a new battery company ‘PowerCo’, and the start of construction of the Group’s first battery cell factory in Salzgitter. PowerCo is gonna be responsible for the Group’s global battery activities with planned investment up to 2030 exceeding €20 billion.
The SalzGiga cell factory is expected to commence production sometime in 2025. Both new ventures are said to cumulatively generate 20,000 jobs in Europe, of which, 5,000 will be in Salzgitter alone. Once operational, VW is aiming to generate annual sales in excess of €20 billion.
Following Salzgitter, the next cell factory is expected to come up in Valencia, Spain. In fact, VW is currently on a location scout for three further cell factories in Europe. In addition to Europe, PowerCo is also exploring the possibility of further gigafactories in North America.
PowerCo is to be managed by CEO Frank Blome and Board Members Sebastian Wolf (Chief Operations Officer), Kai Alexander Müller (Chief Financial Officer), Soonho Ahn (Chief Technology Officer), Jörg Teichmann (Chief Purchasing Officer) and Sebastian Krapoth (Chief Human Resources Officer).
In building our first in-house cell factory, we are consistently implementing our technology roadmap. PowerCo will become a global battery player. The company’s major strength will be vertical integration from raw materials and the cell right through to recycling. In the future, we will handle all the relevant activities in-house and will gain a strategic competitive advantage in the race to take the lead in e-mobility. We have secured a top team for this great undertaking. – Thomas Schmall, Member of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG, responsible for Technology, and Supervisory Board Chairman of PowerCo
In the featured photo (L-R): Frank Blome, CEO PowerCo, Daniela Cavallo, Chairwoman of the Group Works Council Volkswagen AG, Stephan Weil, Prime Minister of Lower Saxony, Herbert Diess, Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG, Olaf Scholz, Federal Chancellor, Thomas Schmall, Member of the Volkswagen AG Board of Management for Technology and Chairman of the Board of Management at Volkswagen Group Components, Hans Dieter Pötsch, Chairman of the supervisory Board of Volkswagen AG.
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