The field of potential battery cell producers from Europe has shrunk together. A few years ago, there was still a difficult -to -manageable number of projects and providers who had planned to free local car manufacturers from the dependence on Chinese suppliers. Many have failed – including the once hyped Swedish hope Northvolt. What is essentially VW with the subsidiary Powerco, the company ACC from Mercedes and Stellantis and a French producer, are nestled. More realism has returned in her planning, and that is overdue. Now VW is about to run his first own cell factory, the work in Salzgitter. Here, too, the plans were once bigger. The weaker start-up of e-mobility has made the Wolfsburg carefully, they initially only start with part of the capacity. Chinese producers flood the market. Chinese cell producers have also increased their emissions and floods with cheap batteries. Europe needs their own competence in the shop, but it would be unrealistic, complete self -sufficiency. Today VW only speaks of 50 percent of the group requirement that should cover its own factories. And this goal is not carved in stone either. BMW has specialist knowledge in -house, but relies entirely on external suppliers in production. Anyone who attempts to make themselves completely independent cut off from innovations and competition, warned BMW boss Oliver Zipse, especially in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. The high electricity price complicates the energy -intensive cell production, complex approval processes slow down any resettlement. The industry will therefore call for new subsidies on Friday on the “strategic dialogue” of the auto industry in Brussels. But the example of Salzgitter shows that there is another way. While VW reclines high grants in Canada and Spain, the local project is being created on their own account. If the industry sees too much supplier risk, it also invests on its own.
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