Photo: ANP
German car group Volkswagen on Thursday started building its first battery factory for electric cars in Europe. The plant is being built near the German city of Salzgitter. The company has plans for more European battery factories. This involves investments of more than 20 billion euros.
The plants are being built by a new subsidiary of Volkswagen, PowerCo. Construction in Salzgitter has officially begun with the laying of the foundation stone, in the presence of Chancellor Olaf Schulz and Volkswagen CEO Herbert Dies, among others. Schulz has stated that it is important for car manufacturers to become less dependent on Asian suppliers for batteries for electric vehicles.
In Salzgitter, located in Lower Saxony, there is already a Volkswagen engine plant. The battery plant is supposed to start production in 2025 and will employ 5,000 employees. Batteries will then have to be produced for half a million electric cars each year.
Volkswagen is also targeting battery plant locations in Sweden and Spain and is also planning to build plants in the United States. By the end of this decade, PowerCo should have sales of more than 20 billion euros and employ up to 20,000 people in Europe.
