The Volkswagen Group has announced it’s entered into three more strategic partnerships to strengthen its position in the field of batteries.

The new partners are the leading materials technology group Umicore, the battery specialist 24M Technologies, and cleantech company Vulcan Energy Resources Ltd.

VW says that, although these three partnerships are independent from each other, they share a common goal, “The industrialisation of battery technology” to deliver the volume production of sustainable, cutting-edge batteries.

The company says it’s “consistently implementing its technology roadmap for the in-house development and production of battery cells, as presented at its Power Day earlier this year”. In Europe alone, the Group plans to build six Gigafactories by 2030.

With Umicore, which makes clean mobility materials, VW plans to establish a joint venture designed to supply its European cell factories with cathode materials. Its investment in American start-up 24M Technologies is so it can industrialise the 24M technology, a semi-solid process that is an improvement over the dry coating process, in the automotive battery area, while the agreement with Vulcan Energy Resources regards the supply of CO2-neutral lithium from the Upper Rhine Valley in Germany.

Thomas Schmall, Member of the Board of Management of Volkswagen Group for Technology and CEO of Volkswagen Group Components said, “Volkswagen is implementing its battery strategy very consistently and at a high pace. Volkswagen’s unified cell must be at the forefront of performance, costs and sustainability right from the start. With our new partners, we are one step closer to reaching this goal. Together, we will focus on key parts of the battery value chain and develop cutting-edge technologies.”

(Picture – Mathias Miedreich (left), Thomas Schmall; Frank Blome, Jörg Teichmann (Volkswagen), and Ralph Kiessling (Umicore), courtesy of VW)