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The Salzgitter plant was named SalzGiga after Tesla's GigaFabric. It is to become the standard production facility for the Volkswagen Group for the production of batteries for electric vehicles. The construction and further operation of SalzGiga will be managed by a new subsidiary, PowerCo.
The Salzgitter plant is to start producing batteries based on standardized prismatic cells from 2025. In the future, the plant should reach an annual capacity of 40 GWh, which is enough to produce about 500,000 electric vehicles.
By 2030, the Volkswagen Group, together with partners, intends to operate six battery cell factories in Europe with a total capacity of 240 GWh. The total investment in these enterprises will amount to 20 billion euros, while up to 20,000 new jobs will be created.
It is already known that the next battery plant will be opened in Valencia, Spain. Sites for three more plants are currently being determined. In addition to Europe, PowerCo is also exploring the possibility of building additional gigafactories in North America.
Volkswagen is confident that the new prismatic batteries can be used in electric vehicles of any class. The unification and scaling of production will theoretically reduce the cost of batteries by 50% compared to current indicators.
“The prototypes produced to date have shown very promising performance in terms of range, charging time and safety, which are important prerequisites for a future industry standard,” Volkswagen said.
Source: Volkswagen
