VW Expands on EV Infrastructure Commitments

Germany is usually one of the most proactive governments in the world when it comes to green issues. However, the country’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, is one of the few remaining European leaders that has not put a definitive timescale for phasing out internal combustion engine vehicles into law. Her reluctance to set a firm date is thought to be because of the threat to Germany’s automotive sector.

While the government may be playing conservatively with dates, the German car industry has been forging ahead. Volkswagen in particular is both the country’s top manufacturer of plug-in vehicles with 19,039 sales last year, and the manufacturer of the country’s top selling fully electric vehicle model, the newly launched Volkswagen ID.3 with 7,144 registrations. In 2019, the company announced the biggest investment in its history to move fully to electrification by 2026. It has committed €28.1-billion to the project and promised to deliver over 70 new electric models to market. Last month, the automotive giant took the opportunity to further flesh things out with a “Power Day” that included a full roadmap on its battery and infrastructure plans.

The key to Volkswagen’s roadmap is a new battery technology that the company calls its unified cell. At the Power Day, not many specific details were announced on the battery, but the company said it expects to make significant advances with the battery system including all of its components. From the slides, the image shown looked very similar to a prismatic cell. Volkswagen claims the new batteries will extend vehicle range by 30% and can be charged to 80% capacity in only 12 minutes.

To manufacture the batteries, Volkswagen will build six new gigafactories in Europe, the first two will be located in Skellefteå, Sweden and in Salzgitter, Germany. Both gigafactories will be powered with electricity from renewable energy sources. The six new gigafactories will have a combined capacity of 240 GWh per year and the economies of scale gained from their integration will reduce the cost of new batteries by up to 50% for the entry-level segment and 30% in the volume-level segment. The company will also form partnerships to recycle up to 95 percent of the raw materials used.

In support of infrastructure, Volkswagen announced plans to expandpublic fast-charging networks around the world. It has agreed to co-operate withwith BP in Great Britain, Iberdrola in Spain and Enel in Italy. The company plans to establish around 8,000 fast-charging points in Europe. The majority of the points will be in collaboration with BP ,situated in the UK and Germany. The remainder will cover main traffic routes in Spain and motorways and urban areas of Italy. In the rest of the world, Volkswagen will work with Electrify America to install around 3,500 fast-charging points in North America, and CAMS in China to supply a further 17,000 fast-charging points.

Volkswagen also wishes its electric vehicles to easily integrate with local power systems to move green electricity betweenthe vehicle and the home network. This will provide vehicle owners with independence from the public power grid, while saving them money and reducing CO2 emissions. Vehicles that use Volkswagen’s MEB platform will support this technology as soon as 2022.