GDANSK/BERLIN — Volkswagen’s objective of constructing 200 gigawatt-hours of battery capability by 2030 is just not “set in stone” and the carmaker will monitor how demand for electrical autos (EVs) develops, its batteries chief instructed German newspaper FAS on Friday.
“Our objective is life like, however it’s not set in stone. Constructing battery cell factories is just not an finish in itself. The enlargement of the factories will rely on how the marketplace for electrical automobiles develops,” Thomas Schmall mentioned, in response to pre-released excerpts of the interview on account of be revealed in full on Sunday within the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.
Volkswagen had mentioned in 2021 that it needed to construct as much as 240 gigawatt-hours of battery capability by 2030, of which 200 gigawatt-hours could be constructed by its battery subsidiary PowerCo. It needed six factories in Europe by the top of the last decade.
However Schmall has re-evaluated that objective a number of instances since then, leaving up within the air whether or not the carmaker will construct further crops, together with one it was contemplating constructing in Japanese Europe, or develop current ones.
PowerCo’s three introduced crops — in Spain’s Valencia, Ontario’s Canada and Germany’s Salzgitter — have a mixed capability of as much as 170 gigawatt-hours.
The crops in Spain and Canada could possibly be expanded and it remained to be seen whether or not the carmaker would achieve this, Schmall mentioned, with out offering element on when a choice could be made on the matter.