VW is the first German car manufacturer to fully commit to electromobility. What was missing until now was its own battery cell production. German OEMs are currently heavily dependent on Asian cell manufacturers. A risky dependency against the backdrop of geopolitical tensions and ever-increasing competition with Chinese car manufacturers, who have better access to the cells. Volkswagen is now changing course and trying to get involved along the entire cell production supply chain - from raw material extraction to cell and battery production and recycling. But isn't this step coming too late? Is it still possible to catch up with CATL or BYD? Sebastian Wolf, Member of the Board of Management at VW subsidiary PowerCo, and Sebastian Reuber, Head of the Development of Production Processes for Battery Electrodes at PowerCo, explain Volkswagen's battery strategy. The race to catch up is to be achieved with a standardized cell that is to be used for all VW Group vehicles in the future. In future, this cell will be manufactured in a gigafactory in Salzgitter. Salzgitter is to be established as the standard for other factories worldwide. VW has also established a new production process: The dry coating of electrodes already discussed in the last Geladen podcast with Inga Landwehr. According to VW, this saves around 30 percent energy, 15 percent factory space and millions in production costs.
