Following Tesla, Volkswagen will use dry coating technology to produce batteries to reduce costs

CTOnews.com, June 18 (Xinhua)-- PowerCo SE, a subsidiary of Volkswagen, plans to introduce dry coating technology (dry coating process) to its battery unit production plants in Europe and North America, a new battery manufacturing process pioneered by Tesla in its 4680 battery unit production.

"Technologies like dry coating demonstrate the technical strength of PowerCo SE," said Thomas Schmall, a board member of Volkswagen Group and chairman of PowerCo's supervisory board. "We have the necessary expertise and the right experts to take battery unit production to a new level and provide a significant cost advantage for our customers. Our goal is to establish sustainable and economical industrial production of batteries."

Volkswagen will work with German printing machinery expert Koenig & Bauer AG to develop dry coating technology for the production of PowerCo battery units. Dry coating technology is expected to reduce the energy consumption of the PowerCo battery plant by about 30 per cent and reduce the footprint required to produce batteries by 15 per cent.

"dry coating technology is to battery production what solid-state batteries are to products-it's a real disruptor," said Frank Bloom, chief executive of PowerCo SE. "if we successfully expand, it will give us a unique market position and a clear competitive advantage."

CTOnews.com noted that Tesla was one of the first automakers to apply dry coating technology to battery unit production, and the electric vehicle manufacturer encountered some dry coating technology challenges when completing the assembly of 4680 battery units. However, Tesla is persevering and is preparing to accelerate the production of 4680 battery units in California.