Since last year, foreign media have revealed that Volkswagen's battery business is about to IPO, but the official has not confirmed it. Previously, a Volkswagen executive responded to the European media's question, but only stated that the possibility of an IPO would not be ruled out, and future decisions would also be combined with the group's higher-level planning.

Recently, Kai Alexander Mueller, CFO of Volkswagen’s battery business, told Bloomberg that they are working to overcome supply chain headwinds to further ramp up battery production in preparation for next year’s battery IPO.

At the "Volkswagen PowerDay 2022" conference held a few days ago, Volkswagen announced that its global battery business will be in charge of the newly established company PowerCo. In addition to battery research and development and production, the new company will also be responsible for Volkswagen's entire battery industry chain-related business, with annual sales planned to exceed 20 billion euros by 2030.

At present, the most thorny issue for the new company is how to ensure raw materials under soaring prices and logistics challenges. Kai Alexander Mueller said that the new company has cooperated with Belgium-based metals group Umicore SA to purchase cathode materials, and is exploring with zero Components giant Bosch has teamed up to procure the hardware needed to produce batteries and plans to buy lithium hydroxide with Australian mining start-up Vulcan Energy Resources.

Just last week, PowerCo broke ground on its first European factory, and the new company will integrate the international factory operations of Volkswagen's battery business, battery technology development and the supply of machinery and equipment for the factory.

In addition to Europe, PowerCo is also exploring the possibility of building a gigafactory in North America, and Volkswagen is currently building a new factory in Swedish battery giant Northvolt. Like Cariad, the group's software arm, the new battery company will aim to simplify the decision-making process in the battery business and focus on the development and production of the battery sector.

Volkswagen Chief Financial Officer Arno Antlitz also said last month that Volkswagen's battery business is still open to an IPO after internal financing and a network of partners, and that PowerCo was established to facilitate an IPO next year or 2024.