Volkswagen Group has started construction on a new battery plant in Valencia, Spain, according to foreign media reports. With an expected annual production of 40GWh by 2026, the plant will primarily produce power batteries for entry-level electric vehicles under the Volkswagen and Skoda brands. After the plant begins operation in 2026, Volkswagen Group intends to further raise its annual production capacity to 60GWh.
It is reported that Volkswagen Group plans to set up six "gigafactories" in Europe with a combined annual production capacity of 240GWh by 2023. So far, three plants have been established respectively in Sweden (Skelleftea), Germany (Salzgitter), and Spain (Valencia).
The first plant, located in Skelleftea, is currently under construction and will be operated by Northvolt once it is completed. In August 2022, Volkswagen Group invested an additional EUR 500 million in Northvolt as both parties had agreed to form a partnership in the field of power batteries used in electric vehicles. Together, they hope to put the Skelleftea plant into operation in 2023.
The second plant, located in Salzgitter, broke ground on July 7, 2022. The plant is set to begin operation in 2025 and will be able to meet the demand from around 500,000 electric vehicles every year when operating at a fully loaded capacity of 40GWh per year.
The third plant, located in Valencia, was unveiled by Volkswagen Group in March 2022 and is designed to have an annual production capacity of 40GWh. The initial investment in the plant was set just above RMB 7 billion, but it was later raised to around EUR 10 billion within the same month of the announcement.
It is worth mentioning that on March 13, 2023, Thomas Schmall, the head of Volkswagen Group's component department, stated that the three battery plants currently being built in Europe will be able to meet the company's battery demand up to 2023. Schmall also affirmed that Volkswagen Group aims to maintain its battery production capacity target of 240GWh per year by 2024. However, he mentioned the possibility of having less than the initially planned six gigafactories in Europe. Schmall further stated that his company has no plans to construct another new battery plant before 2025.
This article is a translation of a Chinese article posted by TrendForce. It contains information that is either sourced from other news outlets or accessible in the public domain. Some Chinese names are transcribed into English using Hanyu Pinyin.