VW invests in U.S. startup to develop new technology for powered lithium-ion batteries

The Volkswagen Group has reportedly invested $10 million in a U.S. startup called ForgeNano, which is currently working on a new technology to improve the energy density of battery cells. It is understood that the investment agreement is not yet in effect, pending approval by the authorities.

According to the information, ForgeNano is from Colorado, USA and was founded in 2014. The company is currently working on a process technology called scaled atomic layer deposition (ALD), which aims to increase the energy density of battery cells.

In August 2018, Herbert Diess, CEO of Germany’s Volkswagen Group, said the group intends to build its own battery plant in Europe to process solid-state batteries, with volume processing expected to begin between 2024 and 2025. It said the purpose of building its own battery plant is to reduce its reliance on external battery manufacturers in its core business segments such as batteries.

On January 26, 2019, VW announced that it plans to invest 870 million euros (about 6.7 billion yuan) by 2020, which is important for the development of electric vehicle parts, and the new battery business will be important for the processing of electric vehicle batteries and battery packs and recycling of old batteries. And this year will be built in Wolfsburg, the headquarters of the first mobile charging station, in 2020 to more cities to promote.

According to the German business newspaper, the Volkswagen Group integrated all battery-related research and development and processing work, and set up a new department dedicated to this work, the new department is called parts. VW Group plans to invest heavily to support the work of the new department. The Volkswagen Group has integrated a range of battery-related activities, including the development and processing of electric vehicle batteries and the recycling of used batteries, within the new division Parts. The new division has 61 supplier plants worldwide and employs more than 80,000 people. The new division’s responsibility is to be responsible for the planning and development of all related businesses throughout the battery’s life cycle, said Stephan Schammerer, vice president of parts and procurement for the Volkswagen Group.

At the plant in Salzgitter, Germany, VW is already equipped with a pilot plant for battery cell processing, and it is planned that the equipment for battery recycling will be assembled by mid-2020. The equipment is capable of achieving 97 percent material recovery. In Blanchevik, Germany, VW is also developing and assembling a battery system. In addition, VW will process the electric drive unit in Kassel, Germany. At the same time, VW will gradually separate the processing of synthetic materials.

In recent years, with the development of electric vehicles and the active promotion of national governments, the processing of electric vehicles has gradually received the attention of traditional automakers. And there are more and more automakers start to build their own battery factories.

On the whole, the reason why the car companies choose to “do it yourself, the abundance of food”, one is to reduce the reliance on external battery manufacturers. The second is also due to cost control considerations. After all, the power lithium battery as the core components of electric vehicles, the cost of the vehicle occupies 40% of the proportion. By building its own battery factory, the vehicle company can cooperate with upstream battery material suppliers, which will greatly reduce the processing cost of the vehicle. In addition, own processing battery is also conducive to the company’s deep integration of the power industry chain.

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