They have to endure a lot, the new batteries of the ID.4. The new electric SUV is intended to boost Volkswagen sales, which have long been weakening in the USA. The German carmaker doesn’t need problems with the power storage unit, which forces competitors to recall from time to time. The group is therefore testing on site itself. On Wednesday, VW opened a $22 million, 32,000 square meter battery laboratory at its US site in Chattanooga. It should lead to building up battery know-how in-house, explains VW North America boss Scott Keogh. The components are exposed to extreme conditions in large test containers: the battery boxes are cooled down to minus 70 degrees, then heated to plus 130 degrees. You will be exposed to Arizona dust, one seventieth as fine as a human hair. They are submerged under water and shaken in a large vibrating machine.
Keogh has high hopes for the facility. “Two years ago, we made a conscious decision to push ahead with electrification,” he said at the opening ceremony. At that time, electric cars had a market share of 0.3 percent in the USA. “Now the market development is rewarding us.” VW wants to play a leading role in electrification, and the Battery Engineering Lab is making a contribution.
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VW has set ambitious goals for the North American market. The group is investing 7.1 billion dollars here by 2027. The market share in the USA is to increase from four to ten percent, said CEO Herbert Diess in an interview with the Handelsblatt newspaper, – above all with electric cars.
Production of the ID.4 should also start in the USA shortly. The number of employees at the plant in the US state of Tennessee will be increased from 4,000 to 5,000. According to Keogh, around 70,000 to 80,000 units of the electric SUV are to be built in 2023, and then 100,000 units in 2024. The latter corresponds to the capacity of the battery factory, which VW also presented in more detail on Wednesday as part of the presentation.
Battery factory number five
The battery factory in Chattanooga, in which the large battery packs in the vehicle floor are made from individual cells, is currently starting work in one-shift operation. It corresponds to the corporate standard factory, explains Chris Glover, site manager of Chattanooga. It was therefore developed according to the German model: “The second factory of this type was built in the Czech Republic, two more in China. Chattanooga is number five.”
The Tennessee city is the main manufacturing site of VW North America, alongside the plant in Puebla, Mexico. Just a few years ago, mainly Passats were produced here, which met with restrained demand in the USA. “We made a loss with every Passat,” says Keogh. Fewer than 80,000 vehicles rolled off the production line each year.
Opening of the battery laboratory
VW North America boss Scott Keogh (3rd from left) has great expectations of the new facility.
Only the focus on the SUVs, which are popular in the USA, brought about a turning point. With the suburban SUV, the VW earnings increased by 1.5 billion dollars, the national company came out of the red. Instead of 15 percent, 70 percent of the vehicles sold are now SUVs. The Atlas and Atlas Cross Sport models are profitable, albeit classic combustion engines.
The electrical strategy is intended to secure the future. Initially, only the ID.4 will also be produced in the USA. In a second step, a larger electric SUV could be added, the ID.5. Perhaps the most eagerly awaited VW car, the ID.Buzz van, is to be imported from Germany in the foreseeable future.
New company for the pick-up truck
The company’s planned new pick-up truck, the Scout, will probably not be produced in Chattanooga. Volkswagen is entering the most popular vehicle segment in the USA with the revived US cult brand and is also focusing on electrical engineering here. However, the Scout will not appear under the VW logo, but as its own brand. A new US company is founded for this: This is not located at VW North America, but reports directly to the Wolfsburg headquarters.
For Keogh, this is a personal setback. After all, the American, who managed the turnaround in earnings for VW in North America, campaigned for CEO Diess to offer an electric pick-up. It is surprising that Keogh is not responsible for its development, production and market launch.
The manager remains taciturn when asked by Handelsblatt about the background: “You have to ask in Wolfsburg.” VW North America is of course ready to offer its own pick-up in the future, he adds – if the group wants that. The electrical construction kit could form the basis for this.
Now the ID.4 production in Chattanooga has to be ramped up. Electrifying the plant cost $800 million. There are already hundreds of ID.4s in the yard, pre-series vehicles not intended for sale.
cells from suppliers
The battery laboratory is “an important step for the company” in order to master all key technologies for electric mobility, explains VW North America chief engineer Wolfgang Demmelbauer-Ebner at the opening. The group wants to further improve battery technology in terms of energy density, weight and costs.
The newly acquired special machines include what is known as a “multi-axial shaking table”. This enables vibration tests, simulating an average driving year of 15,000 kilometers in just one week. A battery has to last 100,000 miles and eight years, according to the specification. There are also thermal shock chambers in which the batteries are exposed to rapid temperature changes in order to test the resilience of the weld seams, among other things.
The new battery laboratory is one of four worldwide, alongside the locations in Braunschweig, Shanghai and Changchun in China. Theoretically, all of these tests could also be carried out in Germany. However, the transport there and back across the Atlantic alone takes six weeks, according to Demmelbauer-Ebner: The batteries must not be transported by plane due to the risk of fire.
According to VW, more than 100 engineers have been hired in Chattanooga. 30 focus on the climatic, mechanical, electrical and corrosion tests of battery packs and cells.
The cells do not come from VW itself, but from the supplier SKI. In principle, they are also considering setting up their own cell production, but are very satisfied with the SKI partnership, according to Demmelbauer-Ebner. VW is also already thinking about the future recycling of batteries.
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