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Frankfurt / Stuttgart (dpa) - The Volkswagen Group is making rapid progress with its planned network of six European battery cell factories.

The sports car subsidiary Porsche wants to build a battery factory for high-performance cells in Tübingen, as Porsche boss Oliver Blume said in an interview with the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung”.

"The battery cells are a core technology for the German automotive industry that we must also have in our own country."

It is true that Porsche will also purchase batteries from the VW Group.

"But there will also be a segment for high-performance cells," said Blume.

“This is a Porsche domain.

Just as we developed high-performance internal combustion engines, we now want to be at the forefront of high-performance batteries. "

So far, German and European carmakers have relied primarily on supplies from Asian manufacturers for the future, with a rapidly growing share of electric cars.

Many suppliers and car manufacturers shy away from entering the cell production of batteries, the technical basis for car batteries, because of high investments.

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VW boss Herbert Diess, however, had vigorously expanded the battery strategy of the Wolfsburg-based car giant: VW wants to build a total of six battery cell factories in Europe by 2030 to cover the need for batteries.

One of these factories in Salzgitter is supposed to deliver the so-called "unit cell" with which VW wants to equip its mass models in a cost-saving manner.

With the battery start-up Northvolt, a plant for high-performance cells is also being built in Skellefteå in northern Sweden.

According to Blum, another of these is now planned in Tübingen.

Lower Saxony's Prime Minister and VW supervisory board member Stephan Weil had called for another cell plant in Germany and brought a factory on the north German coast into play.

In addition, the Spanish VW subsidiary Seat is also given a good chance of bringing a battery location to Spain.

Volkswagen had previously left other locations open in addition to Salzgitter and Skellefteå.

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210424-99-336015 / 2