Volkswagen delays decision on east Europe gigafactory

Volkswagen group’s Chairman Oliver Blume has said the German auto group will not make a decision on a fourth battery factory site “for now”, Reuters reports.

Mr Blume cited that demand for EVs in Europe was lagging expectations.  

A decision to put off an additional gigafactory was previously made a year ago, when VW was looking at sites in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.

Whilst VW has said there is “no rush” to decide on a fourth location, Czech officials have said they would begin offering their proposed site for Volkswagen’s battery plant to other investors, saying they could not afford to wait any longer for a decision, Reuters reports.

Volkswagen has selected sites for battery cell production in Germany, Spain and Canada, which it said had combined production potential of up to 200 gigawatt-hours (GWh) per year.

The news from VW also follows other reports of OEMs (such as Ford) slowing down on their BEV projects in response to slower than expected growth of BEV sales and cost management.

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