Volkswagen will build its first gigafactory outside Europe in Canada via its PowerCo SE subsidiary

14 March 2023, 05:15:54

The Volkswagen Group is strengthening its activities in North America and intends to establish a strong position in this important growth market for battery-electric vehicles. The Group and its battery subsidiary PowerCo chose St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada, as the location for Volkswagen's first gigafactory outside Europe. The cell factory will produce sustainable unit cells, with production scheduled to start in 2027. The decision to expand PowerCo's cell production from Europe to Canada is further evidence of the Group's ambitious growth strategy in North America.

PowerCo's decision to build its next plant in St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada, is another milestone in the global rollout of Volkswagen's battery strategy. After Salzgitter and Valencia, it will be the Group's third gigafactory in the world and PowerCo's first cell factory in North America. It will supply Group brand BEVs in the region with state-of-the-art battery cells and is part of a larger plan that Volkswagen and PowerCo agreed with the government of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last August. The declaration of intent signed at that time focuses on battery value creation and raw material security to promote electromobility in the country.

On the way to a key role in the development of the battery value chain in North America, Canada offers PowerCo ideal conditions such as the supply of local raw materials and access to green electricity. Further details about the gigafactory in St. Thomas will be communicated in the near future.

The Volkswagen Group is driving the launch of one of the broadest portfolios of all-electric vehicles in the United States. For example, the Group brands plan to launch more than 2030 new BEV models by 25. In addition, the Group plans to fully exploit the strength of the region by leveraging further synergies and making even better use of the innovation, technical expertise, production capacities, supply chains and market knowledge of all brands in Canada, the United States and Mexico.

Volkswagen will therefore continue to bring additional production capacities and additional know-how to the region in the future. In addition to ramping up assembly of the all-electric ID.4 compact SUV in Chattanooga (Tennessee), Volkswagen also plans to expand the plants in Puebla and Silao (Mexico) in order to assemble BEVs and possibly BEV components such as electric motors in the second half of the decade.

With the electrification of the cult brand Scout, the Group will enter the extremely attractive segments of trucks and robust SUVs. The vehicles will be designed and developed from the ground up for a new all-electric platform that focuses on off-road capability. Scout Motos is supported by the Volkswagen Group and operates as an independent unit within the Group.

South Carolina is a leader in the U.S. automotive industry with over 500 companies employing more than 75,000 people. In addition, the state is No. 1 in the USA in terms of export sales with fully assembled cars and tires. At the production site in Columbia, more than 200,000 Scout vehicles are expected to roll off the assembly line every year. Production is scheduled to start at the end of 2026.

To take the U.S.-specific digital customer experience to the next level and leverage the U.S. leadership in technology and software innovation, CARIAD, Volkswagen's software and technology company, has launched a technology hub in the United States in early 2023. In the Seattle area and Silicon Valley, more than 200 software developers are working on Volkswagen's Automotive Cloud, which connects the future vehicle generations of all Group brands, such as Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche, as well as next-generation software in the areas of automated driving and digital customer experience. CARIAD will also become part of the digital ecosystem in the United States. It partners with U.S. technology companies such as Microsoft for back-end and cloud technologies and Qualcomm for high-performance hardware to accelerate development and innovation.

The Volkswagen Group is also driving the expansion of Electrify America with a charging network of 800 charging stations and 3,500 fast charging points in the US and Canada. The charging network extends from coast to coast and will be powered exclusively by renewable energy. As part of a so-called boost plan, the number of stations is to be doubled by 2026.

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