Thomas Schmall, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of PowerCo, the battery division of Volkswagen Group, stated in a statement that Volkswagen Group, along with its technology partner Koenig & Bauer, has mastered a battery manufacturing process called Dry Coating procedure. If widely implemented, this process has the potential to reduce battery production costs by hundreds of millions of euros annually.
Volkswagen claims that Volkswagen Group and Koenig & Bauer are the first industry participants to perfect the dry coating process for both positive and negative electrodes. Schmall stated during a media roundtable, "No company can do this today."
Tesla acquired the dry coating technology through its acquisition of the startup company Maxwell Technologies in 2019. According to Reuters, insiders revealed that Tesla has been able to achieve anode dry coating so far but still faces challenges in cathode dry coating.
Volkswagen stated that it has already produced several hundred battery cells using this technology on a pilot production line and plans to industrialize production by 2027. Schmall stated that with increased production scale and the adoption of cheaper raw materials, Volkswagen hopes that this process will help reduce battery costs by approximately 50%.
Sebastian Wolf, Chief Operating Officer of PowerCo, added that the company's under-construction battery factories in Germany, Spain, and Canada will still have drying production lines required for traditional wet coating processes, but these lines can be removed later, freeing up around 15% of the factory space.
