Skoda production in the main plant in Mlada Bolesla
The Czech VW subsidiary will soon also need many battery cells.
(Photo: obs)
Düsseldorf Not only Spain has good prospects that Volkswagen will build a battery cell factory there for billions of euros. The Czech Republic also has high hopes of getting such a cell plant. The country is centrally located in Europe, the distances to German and Czech car factories are comparatively short. A lithium deposit in the Ore Mountains is also attractive. The raw material is one of the most important raw materials used in the manufacture of battery cells.
The Volkswagen subsidiary Skoda would play a central role if the Wolfsburg-based company should actually decide to build in the Czech Republic. “A battery cell factory would be the next logical step to turn the country into a center for electromobility,” said Skoda boss Thomas Schäfer on Wednesday at the annual press conference in Mlada Boleslav north of Prague.
“We need at least one gigafactory in the Czech Republic,” added Schäfer. The Skoda boss made it clear that he is relying on the support of the state. The example of Spain shows how companies and politics can work together to find solutions for the future.
Last week, Volkswagen announced the construction of six battery cell factories (“Gigafactory”) in Europe by 2030. Each of these new cell factories is to have a capacity of 40 gigawatt hours (GWh). The first two locations in Sweden and in Salzgitter (Lower Saxony) have already been set.
Top jobs of the day
Find the best jobs now and be notified by email.
A cell factory in western Europe is scheduled to go into operation in 2026, and another in eastern Europe in 2027. Volkswagen has not yet issued any location specifications for the remaining two plants. They should not start operating until the end of the current decade.
In Western Europe, locations in Portugal, Spain and France are possible. The clear favorite, however, is Catalonia, the home region of the Spanish Volkswagen subsidiary Seat. Seat boss Wayne Griffiths had expressed the clear wish on Monday that his company should become the center of the production of electric cars in Spain.
Negotiations about the construction of a cell factory are already well advanced in Catalonia. The Spanish state is involved, which would probably provide public funds from the EU’s Corona rescue program. Another negotiating partner besides Volkswagen is the Spanish energy company Iberdrola.
Energy companies as possible partners
The construction of six large cell factories in the next eight to nine years is no easy undertaking for the Volkswagen Group either. VW CEO Herbert Diess made it clear last week at the carmaker’s “Power Day” that other partners besides the public sector could also participate in the investment program.
According to industry estimates, Volkswagen has to reckon with an investment volume of up to 15 billion euros for six cell plants. Diess sees large energy companies as the most likely cooperation partner. They sell the electricity that will later be used to power electric cars.
The talks in Spain could become a blueprint for negotiations in the Czech Republic. There is a company there, the energy group CEZ, which has already shown interest in the project. Skoda and CEZ are already working together, for example in generating electricity with solar power plants.
In the meantime, the government has also intervened and wants to support the construction of a cell plant in northern Bohemia not too far from the border with Germany. “We are talking about it intensively,” said Industry Minister Karel Havlicek last week.
There is also interest in Volkswagen’s cell plans in Poland and Slovakia. A location in the Czech Republic and especially in the north of the country, however, has a big advantage compared to other Eastern European competitors: the distances to the nearest car factories as buyers are quite short.
A cell factory in northern Bohemia could supply the main Skoda plant in Mlada Boleslav, where the production of electric cars started this year. In addition, Zwickau in Saxony is not far away: Volkswagen has concentrated its production of electric vehicles there.
In the Czech Republic, the small town of Prunerov is already being traded as a possible location for the cell factory. CEZ shut down a coal-fired power station there last year, so there would be enough space. Prunerov is only a good ten kilometers from the German border.
In addition, there is a large lithium deposit in the Ore Mountains south of Dresden in the German-Czech border area, which could be developed and mined in the next few years. From there it is also not very far to a possible cell site in Prunerov.
More: Race for the battery: VW is building six of its own battery cell plants in Europe.