Volkswagen will invest 20 billion in batteries. So you will be obliged to have an electric car
Volkswagen and its partners will invest over € 20 billion ($ 20.38 billion) in a business unit fully dedicated to electric car batteries, creating 20,000 jobs and aiming for annual sales of more than € 20 billion by 2030. , in an effort to beat US rival Tesla, which is a leader in this growing market.
VW's PowerCo unit will manage battery manufacturing and research, from extraction to recycling, and projects that include energy storage systems, the automaker said at the inauguration ceremony of Europe's first cell plant for batteries in Salzgitter, in the German region of Lower Saxony.
“The future of mobility will once again be realized in Salzgitter,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Thursday at the inauguration of the battery plant.
The factory's name, “SalzGiga”, is an allusion to rival Tesla's “Gigafactory”, recently opened near Berlin. VW said its project aims to help the company catch up and eventually surpass Tesla.
“ Not so long ago, many Germans thought: we can take batteries from Asia. Today we know it well. The pandemic and Russia's brutal attack on Ukraine make it clear that dependence on global supply chains carries a great risk , ”said Scholz.
The battery cell project involves the construction of six plants in Europe, of which Salzgitter is the base model for VW's future standardized production facilities, including two in North America.
Given the size of the investments made by VW with its German partners, the imposition by the German-centric EU of this solution on all other countries, whether it makes sense or not, is now certain. Meanwhile, electricity is now produced, in large part, with natural gas, the same that Russia does not send us. Patience, we will wait for the wind to blow.
VW's industrial strategy is very reminiscent of Ford's first era, that of the Model T, for which the entire production cycle is to be integrated upstream to exclude competitors and offer a highly standardized product. One day it will be beaten by a General Motors-style strategy, that is, based on satisfying customer preferences and adapting standards to their needs.
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The Volkswagen article will invest 20 billion in batteries. So you will be obliged to have the electric car comes from ScenariEconomici.it .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/volkswagen-investira-20-miliardi-nelle-batterie-quindi-sarete-obbligati-ad-avere-lauto-elettrica/ on Fri, 08 Jul 2022 15:06:43 +0000.