VW Joins Consortium To Develop A New Generation Of Batteries

Volkswagen has joined forces with German companies BASF, Bosch, Evonik Degussa, Li-Tec and STEAG Saar Energie to develop a new generation of high-performance batteries for stationary and mobile operation. The project was presented during the Innovation Congress in Berlin with the theme "One Year of High-Tech Strategy - New Perspectives for Germany" which was initiated by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research.

The goal of the German alliance is to increase substantially the energy and performance density of the batteries and to accelerate the possible use in production. The participating industrial partners will invest around 360 million euros in this project in the coming years while the Federal Ministry for Education and Research will support the initiative with an additional 60 million euros. -Continued after the jump

Dr. Juergen Leohold, Head of Group Research at Volkswagen AG said, "In the future, there will be parallel use of various automotive drive systems, all the way to purely electric drive. A high-performance lithium-ion battery as the energy carrier will be a key technology. Therefore, it is sensible and necessary to combine the potentials for the research and development of this battery in an alliance for innovation. This way, synergies can be exploited and the development accelerated. For Volkswagen, this initiative is an important step on the way to zero-emission operation of vehicles."