(Reuters) – Umicore plans to establish a battery materials venture to supply Volkswagen’s battery cell production as the German carmaker expands electric vehicle output, the Belgian chemicals and recycling company said on Wednesday.
The venture aims to build up precursor and cathode material production capacities in Europe, helping achieve the ambitions of the European Green Deal to set up a sustainable battery supply chain, Umicore said.
It said the venture with Volkswagen was the first of its kind in Europe’s automotive market.
“Teaming up with Umicore enables us to establish a state-of-the-art supply chain in Europe,” Thomas Schmall, chief executive of Volkswagen Group Components, said in a statement.
Production will start in 2025 with initial annual production of 20 GWh to supply Volkswagen’s plant in Salzgitter in Germany, expanding to 160 GWh by the end of the decade.
At a later stage, both parties aim to include refining and battery recycling in the scope of the partnership.
(Reporting by Piotr Lipinski in Gdansk; Editing by Louise Heavens and Edmund Blair)
