Investment worth billions
VW subsidiary is building battery materials factory in Poland
October 7, 2023, 10:00 p.m
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In Europe, Volkswagen has joined forces with the Belgian mineral technology and recycling group Umicore. Together, the partners are investing billions of euros in building production capacity for battery materials. A location search is now complete.
The battery materials manufacturer founded by Volkswagen subsidiary PowerCo and the Belgian company Umicore is building its first factory in Poland. The factory for the production of cathode active materials for electric vehicles will be built in Nysa (German: Neisse) in southwest Poland, directly following an existing Umicore factory, PowerCo said. The Volkswagen Group has pooled its battery activities in its subsidiary PowerCo.
The Polish government is supporting investments of up to 1.7 billion euros with 350 million euros, PowerCo said. Up to 900 jobs would be created in Nysa. The joint venture called Ionway wants to expand its annual production capacity to 160 gigawatt hours per year by the end of the decade. This corresponds to the equipment of around 2.2 million electric vehicles.
Volkswagen and the Belgian materials and recycling group Umicore announced the founding of the company to build production capacity for battery materials around a year ago. VW is following the trend of taking the supply of battery materials into its own hands and bringing it closer to electric car production. “PowerCo has helped create what it was looking for: a supplier of battery materials that secures and builds production capacities for reliable and competitive production of precursor and cathode materials based on responsibly sourced raw materials,” explained PowerCo purchasing manager Jörg Teichmann. The joint venture is intended to supply PowerCo’s battery cell factories in Europe with key materials from 2025.
PowerCo said they chose Poland because the location was strategically favorable and there were qualified specialists and renewable energy sources for the operation. Construction work would begin as soon as the approval process was completed. Ionway is also planning a factory for primary materials, but the location has not yet been decided.