VW plans to build its own battery plant

After hitching its wagon to 'dirty diesel' for years and getting burnt, VW is now switching all their efforts to electric

As the demand for electrified-cars is expected to sharply rise in the following years, Volkswagen plans to support the production of green vehicles by building a battery factory.

Volkswagen is apparently looking beyond the diesel scandal by shifting the focus on environmentally friendly cars. But to lower production costs and to avoid relying anymore on suppliers such as Panasonic, LG or Samsung, Volkswagen is considering building a multi-billion-euro battery factory, sources told to the German publication Handelsblatt. In fact, such a strategy is very close to be approved by the company’s executive board and an announcement in this direction is soon to be made, according to the paper.

“We want to launch a major initiative, one that will put us at the top of the industry," a person familiar with the matter said. The electric car maker Tesla is also very close to start the production of its own batteries at the newly build Gigafactory facility in Nevada, in support of its target to make 500,000 models by 2018.

Even if Volkswagen does not currently rely too much on sales of electrified-vehicles, it is committed to speed up the pace and to launch 20 additional plug-in models by 2020, while aiming to deliver around one million green units by 2025. Besides its efforts to mend the brand image in the aftermath of the emissions cheating scandal, VW is also urged in this direction by the increasingly challenging emissions limits.