When Volkswagen confirmed that Ralf Brandstätter was going to China in August 2022, it also said it would create a company to take care of all businesses related to batteries. We were waiting for this new European company to get a name to talk more about it. Volkswagen must be still choosing it, but it reinforced the creation of this company to make it official that it hired Soonho Ahn, Apple’s former Global Head of Battery Development.
Ahn will be the man responsible for developing Volkswagen’s unified cells. He will answer to Frank Blome, Volkswagen Group Components’ head of battery cell and system. Blome’s boss is Thomas Schmall, the CEO of Volkswagen Group Components, which shows how intricate Volkswagen’s chain of command is.
The still-unnamed company – come on, Volkswagen, why is it so hard to call it anything? – will take care not only of developing the new unified cells in all their configurations: entry (LFP), volume (high-manganese), and those for high performance cars. It will also take care of the six battery factories in Europe slated to deliver 240 GWh in batteries until 2030.
One of the main focuses of the new company will be on the Salzgitter plant, which will be the heart of Volkswagen’s strategy. Salzgitter will recycle the battery packs the company manages to recover – either by leasing EVs multiple times or by offering good deals for people to sell them back to Volkswagen.
Of these six new battery plants, Volkswagen has defined the location for two:...
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