LEIPZIG, Germany: Volkswagen will create joint ventures and help finance battery production to persuade sceptical cell suppliers to back its aggressive push for mass producing electric vehicles, board member Stefan Sommer told Reuters.
VW has said it will buy 50 billion euros ($56.57 billion) worth of battery cells and has identified Sweden’s Northvolt, South Korea’s SKI, LG Chem and Samsung SDI as well as China’s CATL as strategic partners.
“Not every supplier is convinced that electric mobility will come on such a large scale. You need to spend more time convincing them to invest in the auto industry,” Sommer told Reuters.
Volkswagen said that by 2025, it needs 150 gigawatt hours worth of battery production capacity in Europe and another 150 in Asia. By 2030 this figure will double.
“These producers need to prioritize between making a new smartphone or building a new battery factory. So even the battery cell producers are asking: will production volumes scale up quickly?,” he said.
The German automaker is retooling 16 factories to build electric vehicles and plans to start producing 33 different electric cars under the Skoda, Audi, VW and Seat brands by mid-2023.
Customers have been slow to adopt electric vehicles in large numbers because of the limited operating range and long battery recharging times.
“When it comes to normal components, suppliers have the opportunity to sell to other car makers, if VW buys less. But with electromobility we all know: if it does not work for VW, then it won’t work for others,” he said.
This is why VW provides suppliers with finance for tooling and shares the risk of installing new production capacity by making new factories a joint venture.
“The tendency is to do joint ventures. The suppliers are still asking themselves, is this market going to take off or not? Meanwhile they realize it is an opportunity,” he said. — Reuters
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