Volkswagen’s word, will you escape from the Korean electric vehicle battery?[퓨처클립]

Volkswagen announced that it would produce its own electric vehicle batteries. Volkswagen CEO Herbert Dice held’Power Day’ on the 15th (local time) and unveiled its global EV market strategy. ‘Power Day’ is an event that is modeled after Tesla’s’Battery Day’, which is Volkswagen’s’rival’.

Volkswagen CEO Herbert Dice. (Photo = Volkswagen)

The heart of the event is Volkswagen’s plan to’internalize’ the battery. Volkswagen said it plans to produce batteries directly from 2025. It plans to build 6 factories with a scale of 40GWh in Europe to have a total production capacity of 240GWh. It is a scale capable of producing 9.6 million electric vehicles in one year.

The first plant will be built in Selefteo, Sweden, and the second plant will be built in Salzgitter, Germany. Both plants are operated on renewable energy to enhance the eco-friendliness of electric vehicles by’life cycle’.

In addition, Volkswagen will introduce a new cell for its electric vehicles in 2023. It is expected that this cell will be rectangular rather than pouch-shaped or cylindrical. It is reported that Chinese CATL and Volkswagen’s own investment company North Bolt will supply it. The battery of LG Energy Solution and SK Innovation is highly likely to be excluded from the supply chain.

Volkswagen explained that it plans to lower the selling price of electric vehicles by lowering the battery cost by up to 50%. “The battery will take full advantage of Volkswagen’s economies of scale,” said Thomas Schmal, director of technology at Volkswagen.

Volkswagen emphasized that the prismatic integrated cells to be introduced in the future will provide optimal conditions for the transition to the next-generation all-solid battery. He added that there will be a leap forward for all-solid-state batteries within five years.