German auto giant Volkswagen has announced a USD 20.38 billion investment in its electric vehicle battery cell business with partner The PowerCo. The investment is projected to create 20,000 new jobs and annual electric vehicle sales worth over 20 billion euros by 2030.
The PowerCo will manage the production and development of Volkswagen electric vehicle batteries. These investments include mining raw materials, to recycling electric vehicle batteries.
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“What we have proven millions of times with the Volkswagen vehicle platform, standardization and improvement allows for the highest quality speed and cost optimization,” said The PowerCo Chief Executive Frank Blome.
Volkswagen plans to build an electric vehicle battery factory with a total capacity of 230 gigawatt-hour (GWh) by 2030. Of the total factories to be built, 6 are in Europe and 2 are in North America.
One of the electric vehicle battery factories that has a capacity of 40 GWh which is enough to power 500,000 electric cars in a year.
See also: Volkswagen cooperates with Bosch to create joint venture battery factory in Europe
Volkswagen already has battery cells to launch in 2021. VW’s standard prismatic battery cells will be used in up to 80 percent of all electric vehicles from the Volkswagen group.
