VW wants to put everything on the electric card – and founds an international consortium for battery cell research. The merger wants to apply for funding from Minister of Economics Altmaier.
A VW Golf Hybrid (archive image)
Thursday, 21.03.2019
14:02 clock
Volkswagen has joined forces with partners from seven EU countries to research battery cells for electric cars. The partners from industry and research will form the consortium “European Battery Union” (EBU) in the future, said Volkswagen. The aim is to build comprehensive competencies in battery cell production from 2020 onwards.
This involves both the mining of raw materials as well as the research of cell technology and manufacturing processes to the recycling of e-car batteries. Previously, VW, Daimler and BMW had agreed in the dispute over the drive of the future that battery electric cars and hybrids the “order of the hour” are,
VW boss Herbert Diess had demanded that development and promotion of vehicles with fuel cells, gas engines or other environmentally friendly variants would have to be set. BMW boss Harald Krüger contradicted,
The consortium, which is led by Volkswagen and the Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt, wants, according to the information given by the Federal Minister of Economics Peter Altmaier (CDU) Promotion of industrial production of batteries participate. Previously, Volkswagen had already applied for federal funding for the construction of a battery cell factory in Germany.
Overall, according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, more than 30 companies are interested in such funding. In addition to automakers, these include suppliers, battery manufacturers, chemical companies and raw material and recycling companies. Altmaier had announced that the federal government wanted to promote the construction of a battery cell production with a total of up to one billion euros. Europe lags behind in the production of battery cells for e-cars, especially Asia.