This option is currently being examined more closely than before, said PowerCo CEO Frank Blome on Tuesday in Salzgitter. In principle, the company has sufficient financing for what it is currently doing. "We know that if the group generates less money, we have to operate with less money or tap into another source of funding."
PowerCo has already spoken to potential investors, Blome said. He did not provide any details. In principle, an IPO would also be a possibility, but the decision on this lies with the parent company.
Volkswagen has repeatedly cut PowerCo's budget. Originally, 15 billion euros had been earmarked. Chief Financial Officer Arno Antlitz recently said that this sum had been reduced to ten billion euros. An IPO of the company has been considered an option for years, but in the past there was talk that the plants would have to be up and running first.
The plant in Salzgitter is the first battery factory to start operations. The first battery cells rolled off the production line there on Wednesday. The cells will now be delivered to the VW brands for final testing in vehicles and are to be used in the ID.Polo and ID.Cross electric compact cars and the sister models from Cupra and Skoda starting next year. In a first step, the plant in Salzgitter is expected to produce cells with a capacity of 20 gigawatt hours per year, which is enough for around 250,000 cars. Two further locations are being built in Valencia, Spain, and St. Thomas, Canada.
Volkswagen founded PowerCo in 2022. The company is expected to cover approximately half of the VW brands' battery cell requirements, with the remainder coming from external suppliers. In total, production facilities with a capacity of 200 gigawatt hours per year are planned.
(Report by Rachel More, written by Christina Amann, edited by Ralf Bode. If you have any questions, please contact our editorial team at Berlin.Newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and economics) or Frankfurt.Newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets).
