German automaker Volkswagen is positioned as the best selling car brand in the European market. The company manages to satisfy the users with its electric cars as well as the internal combustion models it offers to the market.
Volkswagen has been working on EV models for a long time. In order to develop its electric car range, the company announced new partnerships. Thanks to these partnerships, Volkswagen can add more electric cars to its product range.
Volkswagen has made partnerships on electric vehicle batteries!
Volkswagen did not promise an electric car at the climate change conference held in recent months. The company, which drew reaction after this decision, said in its statement that it will say goodbye to internal combustion engines until 2040. Thereupon, the company announced that it has partnered with 3 companies on the batteries of electric cars to increase the production of electric cars.
Volkswagen has partnered with materials technology group Umicore, battery specialist 24M Technologies, and Vulcan Energy, a German brine lithium extraction business, according to a statement released today. Volkswagen has partnered with Umicore to supply the Cathode material, which is the building block of lithium-ion batteries, to the European battery cell factory.
Volkswagen said it invested in battery company 24M Technologies as it developed a semi-solid electrode battery. The size of the investment was not disclosed by the company. The last partnership is with the Vulcan company. The deal with the Vulcan company is about carbon neutral lithium sourced from Germany. The company says that brine extraction of lithium is much more environmentally friendly than the traditional method.
In this direction, they said that they can extract carbon neutral lithium in a renewable energy plant. The company will supply Volkswagen with lithium hydroxide for 5 years starting from 2026. All three partnerships are in the company’s investment plan of 30 billion euros for electric cars. Volkswagen aims to establish six battery factories with a production capacity of 240 gigawatt-hours within 10 years.
Other manufacturers are making deals too!
Apart from Volkswagen, other automobile manufacturers are also investing in batteries. Recently, General Motors announced that it has signed an agreement with South Korean POSCO Chemical to produce the North American cathode material in 2024. Likewise, Stellantis signed an agreement with the Vulcan company regarding the purchase of the lithium mine.
It is thought that global battery production will develop further thanks to these agreements. So, what are your thoughts? Do you think electric cars make sense? Do not forget to leave your comments and opinions below.