Stuttgart Porsche AG is doing well. The recent IPO was a success, and after a mixed first half, the sports car manufacturer is back on the upswing. Porsche is doing so well that employees are to receive a bonus of up to 3,000 euros after the IPO. And there is also money for investments: the Zuffenhausen-based company is expanding its plans for its own battery production.
“We are building the smallest gigafactory in the world,” said Markus Gräf, COO of the Cellforce Group, at the laying of the foundation stone for the plant for high-performance battery cells in the Mahden industrial area near Reutlingen. Gräf is referring to the large works of the electric car manufacturer Tesla, which partly interlocks vehicle production and battery production under the name Gigafactory. Cellforce was founded at the beginning of 2021 as a joint venture with a majority stake between Porsche and the battery company Customcells specifically for the battery factory with development and pilot production.
The owners have now decided to increase the original capacity from 100 megawatt hours per year to one gigawatt hour. This means that from 2025, instead of the approximately 1000 vehicles originally planned, 10,000 cars per year can now be equipped with the high-performance batteries. The units are initially intended for racing and the top models of the sports car manufacturer’s special series. But now more seems possible.
Porsche is investing more than 160 million euros in battery technology
“Our goal is to be one of the leading companies in the global competition for the most powerful battery cell, but we always proceed step by step,” explained CFO Lutz Meschke on the sidelines of the event. The steps are obviously getting longer and longer. The current increase in plans shows that the technical advances have already come a long way, but that the Porsche management is not yet openly saying so. According to Meschke, Porsche has so far invested 60 million euros in the battery factory.
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The entire battery project is funded by the federal and state governments as part of an IPCEI project with a further 60 million euros. The abbreviation stands for “Important Project of Common European Interest” and enables projects in chip and battery production to be funded more than is normally permitted in the EU. “We are convinced that Cellforce will contribute to Baden-Württemberg being one step ahead in battery technology,” said Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut, State Minister for Economic Affairs, to the Handelsblatt.
The battery subsidiary Porsches plays an important role in the future plans of the sports car manufacturer – and possibly the parent company VW.
(Photo: obs)
To ensure that this really succeeds, last May Porsche participated with 100 million dollars in a round of financing by Group14 Technologies, the leading US manufacturer of silicon-carbon technology for lithium-ion batteries. Porsche is thus gaining access to a superior process. The Zuffenhausen-based company and other investors see the game changer in battery technology in the US group.
New, silicon-containing anode material can make batteries significantly more powerful. As a result, according to experts, the batteries of the future can store up to 50 percent more energy with the same size. For Porsche, this means: longer range, faster charging and also better energy recovery when braking or driving downhill.
The presence of Group14 boss Rick Luebbe at the laying of the foundation stone shows how close the ties are. “Group14 has set itself the goal of improving the performance of today’s lithium-ion in order to accelerate the global energy transition,” says Luebbe. After South Korea, another factory for anode material is to be built in the USA with the fresh capital.
Six gigafactories in planning
In Mahden, construction work for the Cellforce factory is in full swing. The battery development wants to move in in a year, in 2024 the production should start. The location is too small for a gigafactory based on the Tesla model. But if Cellforce makes the breakthrough, this could still have an impact on the battery strategy of the entire VW Group.
The subject of energy storage, which was underestimated by the German automotive industry for many years, has meanwhile made it up the management’s list of priorities. “The battery cell is the combustion chamber of the future,” explained Porsche boss Oliver Blume before he was promoted to CEO of Volkswagen a few weeks ago. In the future, it will not be displacement and hp that will determine success, but rather the performance of the battery. With Cellforce, Porsche took a different approach.
So far, Porsche has obtained the standard batteries for large series such as the Taycan from other sources. Parent company Volkswagen wants to close the gaps in the future. According to industry estimates, the Wolfsburg-based company is investing up to 20 billion euros to build new cell factories with partners.
>> Read also: Tesla is trailing VW as the market leader in electric cars in Germany
By 2030, the group will set up six so-called gigafactories in Europe alone, each with an annual capacity of 40 gigawatt hours (GWh). This amount should be enough to equip a good five million electric cars with the necessary batteries every year. If Blume’s high-performance battery project at Porsche is successful, he has every opportunity to roll out Cellforce technology on a large scale thanks to his personal union as head of the VW Group and Porsche.
A lot of detail work is still needed until then: The construction site is directly opposite the headquarters of the machine and plant manufacturer Manz. Cellforce is also working on other manufacturing processes with the medium-sized company. Overall, some medium-sized companies are among the suppliers. In concrete terms, Cellforce will in future use a special process from painting specialist Dürr that enables both sides of the electrode to be coated at the same time. BASF supplies the cathode material.
The Bavarian company Mühlbauer is also involved. “Strong partnerships are needed for the development and manufacture of future high-performance battery cells. This sets standards for battery cell production in Germany,” says Porsche’s head of development, Michael Steiner.
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