Volkswagen will invest 10 billion euros to build the largest battery factory in history

According to a report by the German Agency for Social Security, the Volkswagen Group plans to invest 10 billion euros to establish a lithium-ion battery plant in Germany. The project is expected to exceed the Giga factory and become the largest battery plant in history.

Pass the masses to build the largest battery factory in history

According to insiders, the company may build a new battery plant in Salzgitter, Germany, and invest 10 billion euros (about 11 billion US dollars) to lay the foundation for the sale of millions of electric vehicles each year in 2025. . However, Volkswagen CFO Frank Witter said that the company has not yet made a decision on the new battery plant project. It just carried out various scenarios, including plans similar to the Giga factory.

Originally, the Tesla Gigabit plant is the world's largest lithium-ion battery production plant in the future, and it has the same total production capacity of all lithium-ion batteries worldwide, including the computer and mobile phone industries. However, from the amount of investment and the number of vehicles supported, Volkswagen's new battery plant will be twice as many.

According to Tesla's plan, the total investment of a Giga plant in Nevada, USA, is approximately US$5 billion (including Panasonic’s investment of US$1.6 billion), and it will be put into operation in 2017, and its cell capacity will reach 35 megawatts by 2020. At the time, the battery pack capacity was 50 megawatt-hour-hours. Tesla plans to sell 500,000 cars each year in the future. The entry model Model 3 will be the main force, and the Giga factory will be mainly for the Tesla Model 3.

In contrast, Volkswagen's new battery plant has invested 11 billion U.S. dollars, more than double the Giga factory; by 2025 Volkswagen plans to sell 1 million pure electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid vehicles each year, which is also the future of Tesla. Planned production and sales doubled.

Volkswagen Power Electric Vehicle

In the field of new energy vehicles, the Volkswagen Group has been relatively late in its development, and it is not as good as rivals such as Toyota, Renault-Nissan and General Motors. VW plans to produce 12,140 e-golf pure electric cars and 13,400 golf GTE plug-in hybrids this year. Tesla Motors sold 50,580 Model S high-end electric cars last year. Renault-Nissan said last year that the sales of electric vehicles according to different statistical standards, with 75,000 vehicles and 85,000 vehicles, far exceeded the target value of the public this year.

So far, cumulative sales of Volkswagen brand electric vehicles are expected to reach 103,000 by the end of this year.

Currently, Volkswagen Group's brands have a total of 9 models of electric cars, including 3 pure electric vehicles (Volkswagen e-Up!, Volkswagen e-Golf and Audi R8 e-tron), and 6 plug-in hybrid vehicles. (Volkswagen Golf GTE, Volkswagen Passat GTE, Audi A3 hatchback e-tron, Audi Q7 e-tron quattro, Porsche Panamera S E-Hybrid and Cayenne S E-Hybrid).

By 2020, the Volkswagen Group's electric vehicle lineup will double and 20 new products will be launched, two of which will compete with Tesla, namely the Porsche Mission E electric vehicle and the Audi e-tron quattro, which will become Audi. The first mass-produced electric car was modeled after the legendary Audi Q6.

Volkswagen will launch new cars based on the modular platform of MEB electric vehicles in 2019. In addition, it will also consider adding new platforms for electric vehicles.

In order to control costs, Volkswagen has integrated the production of e-Golf and Golf GTE into its production line at its headquarters in Wolfsburg, and assembled and produced four golf-derived models, including Tiguan Crossover and Touran. Time is only an additional one hour or so, which is 5% more than traditional golf-powered models. Volkswagen executives said that if there is a significant increase in demand, Volkswagen will have greater flexibility to increase e-golf and golf GTE supply.