Not sure if posted before: https://insideevs.com/vw-battery-gigafactory-sk-innovation/

VW Planning Its Own Battery Gigafactory With Help From SK Innovation

OCT 27 2018 BY MARK KANE 24

Volkswagen will clone the Tesla-Panasonic gigafactory approach?

Volkswagen so far was relying on external supplies of lithium-ion battery cells and besides some investment in research of next-generation batteries, it doesn’t have any in-house factory.

The example of the successful and profitable partnership between Tesla and Panasonic in the Tesla Gigafactory project, as well as the scale of further Volkswagen EV plans, encourages it to consider its own battery gigafactory and contracted with a battery manufacturer.

Volkswagen said that it needs up to 150 GWh annuallyby 2025 for some €50 billion ($60 billion) and so far contracts awarded to suppliers have a volume of some €40 billion ($47.7 billion).

https://www.driven.co.nz/news/news/vw-to-declare-war-on-tesla-with-reported-budget-electric-car/?ref=nzhhome

VW to declare war on Tesla with reported 'budget' electric car

The Volkswagen ID Vizzion concept car. Photos / supplied

Volkswagen plans to dramatically undercut Tesla in a bid to take on Elon Musk's electric car firm. Reuters claims the firm is planning to sell its 'MEB entry' vehicle for just £22,836 (NZD$43,900) and plans to make 200,000 of them a year.

Tesla's base Model 3 will cost US$35,000 overseas — but is not yet available, with the cheapest version on sale costing US$45,000. 

It hopes to protect German jobs by converting three factories to make Tesla rivals, a source familiar with the plans said.

VW and other carmakers are struggling to adapt quickly enough to stringent rules introduced after the carmaker was found to have cheated diesel emissions tests, with its chief executive Herbert Diess warning last month that Germany's auto industry faces extinction.

Plans for VW's electric car, known as 'MEB entry' and with a production volume of 200,000 vehicles, are due to be discussed at a supervisory board meeting on Nov. 16, the source said.

Another vehicle, the I.D. Aero, will be built in a plant currently making the VW Passat, a mid-sized sedan, the source said.

The Wolfsburg-based carmaker, which declined to comment on the plans, is also expected to discuss far-reaching alliances with battery cell manufacturer SK Innovation and rival Ford, the source said.

The November 16 strategy meeting will discuss Volkswagen's transformation plan to shift from being Europe's largest maker of combustion engine vehicles into a mass producer of electric cars, another source familiar with the deliberations said.

VW's strategy shift comes as cities start to ban diesel engine vehicles, forcing carmakers to think of new ways to safeguard 600,000 German industrial jobs, of which 436,000 are at car companies and their suppliers.

An electric van, the ID Buzz, is due to be built at VW's plant in Hannover, where its T6 Van is made, the source said.

To free up production capacity for electric cars in Hannover, VW's transporter vans could be produced at a Ford plant in Turkey, if German labour unions, who hold half the seats on VW's board of directors, agree, the source added.

VW and Ford are in 'exploratory talks' about an alliance to develop self-driving and electric vehicles and to complement each other's global production and sales footprints, Reuters reported last month.