The Volkswagen player has presented the birth of its new branch dedicated to the production of battery cells for the Group’s electric cars and, in the meantime, they have laid the first stone for the building of the new gigafactory in Salzgitter, Germany, which will be called SalzGiga.
PowerCo will take care of the production and management of the whole business connected with batteries for electric cars.
The manufacturing of cells in the new factory will start in 2025 and, at steady state, the plant will be able to produce batteries for a yearly capacity of 40 GWh, sufficient for 500,000 electric vehicles.
With the entry into operation of all six gigafactories, within 2030 Volkswagen will achieve an overall capacity of 240 GWh of annual battery production.
The German Chancellor Scholz declared: «Today is an important day for the automotive industry in Germany and in Europe. Volkswagen Group shows how the future of a sustainable environment-friendly mobility might be. Together, in Salzgitter, we are laying significant foundations to shape this future».
PowerCo will invest over 20 billion Euros from now until 2030 in the business of batteries for electric vehicles, with the creation of 20,000 new workplaces in all Europe.
Good news in view of sustainability: SalzGiga will rely on a recycling centre that will allow, in full operation, recovering all most precious materials from “exhausted” batteries, to be reused as raw materials for the production of new cells.