VW Group’s PowerCo to construct battery gigafactory in Canada

The battery plant will present regionalised provide for VW Group’s substantial development plans for battery electrical car manufacturing in North America, which incorporates introducing greater than 25 new battery electrical autos (BEVs) via to 2030.

PowerCo has already introduced gigafactory places in Europe – at Salzgitter, Germany and Valencia, Spain. The primary to come back on-line in 2025 is at Salzgitter and that facility will function a blueprint for the corporate’s battery cell operations around the globe, together with for logistics.

“Our operations in Salzgitter will set a benchmark for every thing that we do elsewhere, and so it’s a nice alternative and accountability to make sure that our logistics and provide chain operations assist us to have a clean ramp up and are additionally future oriented,” stated Matthias Braun, head of battery cell logistics at PowerCo, in a current interview with Automotive Logistics.

Matthias Braun will likely be talking at subsequent week’s Automotive Logistics and Provide Chain convention, held in Bonn, Germany between 21-23 March

Battery logistics 
Provide chain specialists have been creating a brand new framework technique to handle the logistics complexity of battery cell manufacturing, together with new places, vitality and provide necessities, port and rail entry, and transport rules. PowerCo is factoring in logistics prices, dangers, techniques and effectivity, not solely originally of product planning, however throughout its complete enterprise mannequin.

In August final yr PowerCo and VW Group signed an MoU with the Canadian authorities centered on battery worth creation and uncooked materials safety to advertise battery electrical car developments within the nation.

Talking on the time, Herbert Diess, CEO of the VW Group, stated that working carefully with governments around the globe was a prerequisite to assembly its local weather objectives and he thanked the Canadian authorities for its assist.

“The availability of battery uncooked supplies and the manufacturing of precursor and cathode supplies with a low carbon footprint will permit for a quick and sustainable ramp-up of battery capability – a key lever for our development technique in North America,” he stated. 

An electrical enlargement 
As famous, that development technique consists of greater than 25 new BEVs via to 2030. VW Group is ramping up meeting of the ID.4 compact electrical SUV in US plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It additionally has plans to improve manufacturing vegetation in Puebla and Silao, Mexico, for the meeting of BEVs and doubtlessly for BEV parts equivalent to electrical motors within the second half of the last decade.

VW can be resurrecting its Scout off-road model on an electrical platform and can function it as an unbiased unit. It’ll make the car in Columbia, South Carolina from 2026 with annual manufacturing capability set at round 200,000.

VW Group can be engaged on a charging community within the US and Canada with 800 stations and three,500 DC quick chargers powered by 100% renewable vitality, a part of its Electrify America plan, which goals to double that variety of stations by 2026.

VW’s software program and know-how firm Cariad has additionally established a know-how hub within the US originally of 2023, based mostly in Silicon Valley in northern California and Seattle, Washington.

Sustainable provide
Volkswagen stated that Canada provided the advantage of localised provide of uncooked supplies and extensive entry to scrub electrical energy.

Frank Blome, CEO of PowerCo stated: “PowerCo is all set to introduce key strategic belongings such because the unified cell and the standardised cell manufacturing facility to Canada and the bigger North American market. We’re devoted to construct up regional and due to this fact strong, clear and sustainable provide chains.”

Canada is estimated to have 2.9m tonnes of lithium reserve, in accordance with authorities figures, the vast majority of which is held in exhausting rock spodumene.

Final month battery maker LG Chem signed an settlement with American mining firm Piedmont Lithium for the provision of spodumene focus. Piedmont Lithium will present LG Chem with 50,000 metric tons per yr from a mine in Quebec, Canada, run by North American Lithium, wherein Piedmont has a 25% stake.