VW: Decision for Gigafactory in the East not yet made
Volkswagen has yet to decide: The Czech Republic, Poland or Hungary? Where will the Wolfsburg company build its new battery factory for electric cars? So far, the company has refrained from committing the Gigafactory in Central Eastern Europe. The decision should now only be made after 2022. The background is the economic uncertainty and high energy prices in the region.
VW told Czech media that there is currently no pressure to act. The decision-making process is still ongoing. The roadmap for different regions is currently being revised. In the coming weeks and months, the roadmap will be brought up to date. This will not influence the planned start of construction and production.
However, it will probably be the case that the VW Group's fundamental decision on the choice of location will not be made until the end of 2022. At the same time, the company is still free to choose where to start building the first gigafactories. A total of six gigafactories are planned by the end of 2030. In the race for large-scale investment, the Czech Republic has offered a former military airfield near Pilsen (Plzen) as a location. The Plzen Line airport, with a 1,550-metre-long concrete runway, has so far been held in reserve by the army. The so-called "gigafactory" would create about 4,500 jobs in battery cell production. The car industry contributes almost ten per cent to the Czech gross domestic product.
"There is no pressure to act, as we are taking a little more time to make a decision given the current circumstances. Volkswagen AG and its battery company PowerCo are continuously evaluating suitable locations for their next Gigafactory in Europe," the company said in a recent statement.
Fits quite nicely into the picture of developments so far. We remember: With its battery company PowerCo SE, founded in July 2022, the company is looking for a suitable location to build a gigafactory in North America. All this shortly after Thomas Schäfer, CEO of Volkswagen, made it clear that rising energy costs were hampering the construction of battery cell factories in Europe. Meanwhile, priorities are being set differently. Might this also be due to Blum's plans for VW?