Volkswagen and Gotion plan three battery joint ventures

Volkswagen and Chinese battery maker Gotion have agreed to establish three joint ventures for lithium iron phosphate battery production and materials in Spain, Slovakia and Morocco, expanding a partnership that brings Gotion into Volkswagen’s European battery plans. The projects include two cell operations with a combined planned capacity of 37.5 gigawatt-hours and a Moroccan facility designed to produce 100,000 tonnes of cathode material annually. Under the announced ownership structure, Volkswagen’s battery subsidiary PowerCo would retain 51% of the Valencia, Spain, operation, with Gotion holding 49%. The plant is planned to have capacity of 29.1 gigawatt-hours. In Slovakia, Gotion would hold 51% of a cell-production venture with planned capacity of 8.4 gigawatt-hours, while PowerCo would own 49%. Gotion would also hold 51% of the Moroccan cathode-material venture, with PowerCo taking the remaining 49%. The companies are to share management. The Moroccan project, in Kenitra, would supply cathode material rather than produce battery cells. That makes it a different part of the supply chain from the planned cell plants in Valencia and Slovakia.