The joint venture between Volkswagen subsidiary PowerCo and Belgian materials technology group Umicore plans to build its first plant for cathode materials. IONWAY will build a plant directly next to Umicore’s existing facility in Nysa, Poland. The main objective of this joint venture is to produce precursor (pCAM) and cathode active materials (CAM).
Umicore and Volkswagen aim to expand Ionway’s annual production capacity to 160 gigawatt hours per year by the end of the decade. The investment in Poland is expected to create about 900 jobs in Nysa by the end of the decade and is supported by the Polish government. The latter is offering €350 million in cash grants for a total investment of up to €1.7 billion by the end of the decade.
This investment is in line with the Green Deal Industrial Plan and promotes the Temporary Crisis and Transition Framework. This framework supports actions in sectors critical to the transition to a “net zero” economy. Site preparation, planning, and permitting are underway, and construction will begin as soon as the permitting process is completed. Umicore’s existing production capacities in Nysa will ensure that the cathode material requirements of the PowerCo cell plant in Salzgitter are covered at the start of production in 2025.
