LEIPZIG, Germany — Volkswagen Group plans to create joint ventures and help finance battery production to persuade skeptical cell suppliers to back its aggressive push for mass producing electric vehicles, VW purchasing chief Stefan Sommer said.
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.
VW 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?”…
