Volkswagen announces 2 new factories to go electric, partners with SK Innovation for battery cells

Today, Volkswagen is announcing that it is converting two more factories to electric vehicle production and it is partnering with SK Innovation for battery cells.

Earlier this year, VW announced that its Zwickau factory will be the first to go all-electric.

The German automaker plans to produce 1,500 electric cars per day at the plant.

According to the new production schedule announced today, the Emden and Hanover plants are added to the list of those to be converted to produce electric vehicles:

“Emden will already produce electric vehicles from 2022. In Hanover, models of the electrically powered ID.Buzz family will probably be produced from 2022 together with conventionally powered vehicles.”

Those locations will produce the production vehicles based on VW’s series of “I.D.” concept vehicles powered by the company’s new MEB platform for electric vehicles.

The I.D., which is a Golf-sized vehicle, is expected to be their first mass-market EV for the model year 2020. VW also unveiled the I.D. VIZZION sedan, the crossover all-electric I.D. CROZZ Concept, and then there’s the I.D. BUZZ electric microbus, which we’ve now learned is going to be produced in Hanover in 2022

They will start to transfer the production of the models currently manufactured at Emden and Hanover to other Group plants “step-by-step”.

VW HR Board Member Gunnar Kilian commented on the announcement:

“We are moving at full speed into the production of electric vehicles. Emden and Hanover are to be further model plants in Germany. Together with Zwickau, they will form the largest network for the production of electric vehicles in Europe,”

Volkswagen has also been talking about producing the all-electric microbus and the crossover in the US – adding to its effort in Europe.

Speaking of US EV production, the VW Group also announced this week that it partnered with SK Innovation to “cover the Group’s demand on the North American market from 2022.”

VW has reportedly issued battery supply contracts worth $48 billion with existing battery manufacturers already. Before this week’s announcement, VW confirmed that CATL, Samsung SDI, and LG Chem were amongst the manufacturers who received contracts.