Skip to main content

VW Might Choose China as Site of Battery Plant

Volkswagen might be looking to China as the site of their new, rumored battery plant. Sources say that the company could invest billions in one or more plants in the country, which is currently pushing electromobility.

There were rumors earlier this year that VW would investing nearly $11 billion into a battery factory, and with CEO Matthias Müller’s assertion that the Group would sell up to 3 million electric vehicles a year by 2025, investment in battery technology seems like all but a foregone conclusion.

On top of that, as it stands, Europe only currently has a battery cell capacity of 27 gigawatt hours for the entire automotive industry. Volkswagen estimates that it will need 150 GWh to power its fleet.

A source close to senior management tells Automotive News that getting up to that number would require around 10 factories, each of which costs roughly $2 billion, for a total of about $20 billion.

As a result, Volkswagen will be looking for some help covering the costs. Enter China, which is currently pushing to get fossil-fuel-powered cars off their roads in an attempt to help clear some of the smog in their city centers. As a result, electric vehicles are likely to catch on there and research dollars are likely to be funneled into battery technology.

Further, Volkswagen is currently involved in joint ventures with Shanghai Automotive and FAW, so they might be willing to pick up some of the tab.

With so much battery power needed to power the fleet that Volkswagen is planning, it is likely that factories will have to be built in many countries. Since China is primed for the technology, though, it seems the likely first place for such a factory.

[source: autonews.com]

The post VW Might Choose China as Site of Battery Plant appeared first on VWVortex.



from VWVortex http://ift.tt/29hpT8V
via IFTTT

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Saying Goodbye to the CC V6

For all its size and its global reach, Volkswagen is still, in many ways, a deeply human company. There was, for instance, the Bugatti Veyron an ego project if ever there was one. Then the purchase of Ducati, a move most called folly. And then there was the Phaeton, the Volkswagen that most folks can’t afford. Not only were these moves all strange, I’m sure that they made VW’s accountants furious. None of them made good business sense, but they were all deeply interesting and they all are evidence of the heart that beats at the center of VW. Among these follies is the CC, a car that everyone agrees is rakishly handsome, but that no one really wanted to buy. The car couldn’t last, but the world is brighter for its having been in it. With the approach debut of the Arteon, it seems like a good time to look back on its sadly departing predecessor. The version I drove, because I live in Canada, is a V6 Wolfsburg Edition, which apparently isn’t available in the States. Nor is the V6, not as...

T-Prime Makes World Premiere at Beijing

[ See image gallery at www.vwvortex.com ] The SUV segment is one of the fastest growing segments in the world and Volkswagen is showing the world how to do it. With the new T-Prime Concept GTE that was revealed today, the company is showing off all of the technology you can look for in its coming models. The T-Prime is a full-size hybrid SUV that can go up to 31 miles on a charge and gets 87 mpg. The hybrid power station is good for 375 hp and 516 lb/ft of torque and puts the power down with 4MOTION all wheel drive. It’ll get you up to 60 in six seconds. The concept’s real party piece, though, is its interior, which features exclusively touch, gesture, and voice controls. Everything from the infotainment, to the display, and even the gears are controlled by touch-screen. The T-Prime Concept GTE is bigger than the Touareg, and design elements are likely to find their way into all of their SUVs, of which there will be many. Volkswagen is also announcing that they expect to make an S...

Watch: The Transport Does a Whole Hell of a lot More than Transport

Petrolicious doesn’t only feature million-dollar classics, it also features the more generally neat, like this 1996 T4 Transporter that became Instagram famous and started and is starting an empire. Callum Creaser’s T4 started life as a panel van, but over the years it has become a homebrew camper van that has gone on adventures around the world. After posting about his adventures to Instagram, the diesel van gained a following and launched The Rolling Home, a series about other people’s small spaces and homey cars. Based on a 1.4-liter diesel with no ECU, Callum says his T4 is easy as pie to work on since information is widely available from sources like ours. The post Watch: The Transport Does a Whole Hell of a lot More than Transport appeared first on VWVortex . from VWVortex https://ift.tt/2KR01Sv via IFTTT