We are focusing on Europe and North America China, we will do with our partners. The strategy that we have is not that we try to do 100 per cent of our demand worldwide by our own. Will you look at setting up facilities in Asia to service the Volkswagen brands there? Equipment to ramp up factories is a challenge. There’s only a handful around the world with knowledge about the battery business that will be available. It’s not only a battery factory, it starts with people. How much time do you have? Because everything is a challenge in that business. What are the bottlenecks and the things you need to smooth out? The advantage of PowerCo is that it has the whole firepower of a big group like Volkswagen, and the agility of its own legal entity to move fast. We have been doing it for years worldwide. Scaling up, I think we can match that at Volkswagen. What can you do to avoid some of the problems your competitors have had? As you know, we are a little bit behind existing players, so we need to catch up. And it’s only possible because we are looking for a perfect team and have some experience doing that, technology-wise. I think it’s one of the biggest challenges we as car guys will face. How is setting up a battery plant different VW is well versed in building auto factories. Here are highlights from the conversation with Schmall, edited for length and clarity: Schmall said he’s confident that VW’s battery business will be able to meet the group’s demand and also sell to third parties The effort “keeps us awake at night,” Thomas Schmall, VW’s technology chief, who also chairs PowerCo, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. PowerCo will make unified cells designed to fit most of the group’s EV platforms, a strategy that could be a major advantage if the company can pull it off, but also risky. factory in Hungary and has joined Stellantis NV and TotalEnergies SE in a €7.3 billion battery venture, VW is setting up some of its battery plants without partners.
Whereas Mercedes-Benz Group AG is tapping a planned Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.
VW on Wednesday mapped out a renewed profit push, with Chief Financial Officer Arno Antlitz telling reporters the company remains open to eventually selling shares in PowerCo. The automaker has earmarked €20 billion (US$22 billion) worth of investment through 2030 to try and turn its one-year-old battery unit PowerCo into a behemoth with 20,000 workers and enough capacity for 3 million EVs a year. The cell plants VW is setting up in Germany, Spain and Canada will underpin its shift away from the combustion engine. Volkswagen AG is trying to build up a leading battery maker to supply its ever-expanding fleet of electric vehicles - a feat so challenging, it’s leading to sleepless nights at Europe’s biggest carmaker.
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