Milestone moment for our electro-offensive

The future belongs to battery electric cars. For this we need battery cells and the know-how about their development and production. This is what we are building at our “Center of Excellence for Battery Cells” (CoE), located 50 kilometers from our Wolfsburg headquarters. Under the leadership of my colleague Frank Blome a pilot line for the assembly of battery cells is now being launched there.

The opening of the Center of Excellence is a milestone in our electro-offensive, with which we are launching almost 70 new e-models throughout the Group by 2028. For the 22 million electric cars that we want to produce in the next ten years, we need the competences for the most important component – the battery:

• The battery accounts for about one third of the total added value of the e-car.
• Those who are able to understand, develop and produce batteries themselves gain cost advantages and the ability to further develop the technology in a targeted manner.
• We are therefore making every effort to make batteries and battery cells one of Volkswagen’s core competencies.

Salzgitter, in the heart of Lower Saxony, is excellently suited for our Battery Technology Center: On the one hand, because of its proximity to our future electric facilities in Hanover, Emden and Zwickau. On the other hand, Lower Saxony is the driving force behind the energy revolution in Germany. Sixty percent of the electricity required here is covered by renewable energy. For a Battery Technology Center like the CoE, which is inextricably linked to electricity, this is a major competitive advantage.

More is happening in Salzgitter. Together with our partner Northvolt AB, we are planning to build a Gigafactory for lithium-ion batteries there. Production is scheduled to start at the turn of the year 2023/2024. Together with the CoE, this will create more than 1,000 jobs in the testing and assembly of battery cells in Salzgitter.

The Salzgitter battery site complements the automobile cluster in Lower Saxony with a decisive building block and creates modern jobs in our industry. We need this initiative to safeguard the competitiveness of Volkswagen and ultimately the German automotive industry for the future.