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BERLIN (Reuters) - Volkswagen's luxury
sports car unit Porsche AG is speeding up its e-mobility drive
with plans for a German factory to manufacture battery cells for
electric vehicles, its chief executive officer told Frankfurter
Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.
European car manufacturers, who mainly rely on battery suppliers
in Asia, are looking to reduce their dependence from abroad in
light of a ramp-up in e-cars production to meet tougher
environmental rules in the European Union.
"Battery cells are a key technology for Germany's automobile
industry which we must also have in our own country," Oliver
Blume told the newspaper in an interview to be published on
Sunday.
"Porsche wants to play a pioneering role in this," he said,
adding that the battery cell factory would be built in the
Swabian town of Tuebingen.
Porsche will purchase EV batteries from its parent company
Volkswagen which plans to build half a dozen battery cell plants
across Europe and expand infrastructure for charging electric
vehicles globally.
"But there will also be a segment for high-performance battery
cells," Blume said. "It's a Porsche domain. Just as we developed
high-performance internal combustion engines, we now want to be
at the forefront of high-performance batteries."
(Reporting by Michael Nienaber; Editing by Mike Harrison)
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