Porsche is hesitating to build a battery cell factory in Brandenburg. According to Tagesspiegel Background Verkehr, the supervisory board will decide on June 7 to temporarily suspend the project.
Recently, Porsche started production of the all-electric Macan in Leipzig and considered building a battery factory in Schwarzheide, near Leipzig, and a BASF plant for cathode material. However, plans have now stalled. The supervisory board doubts the gigafactory’s necessity due to weak demand for electric vehicles in Germany and overcapacity in battery cells.
“The problems in China, the largest automotive market, and the weak demand for electric cars in Germany are causing the company strategists to hesitate,” reports “Tagesspiegel Background Verkehr.” If the project is halted, it would not be completely abandoned, but also not actively pursued.
The in-house battery cells were planned for performance-oriented vehicles, not volume models like the Macan. Porsche sources cells from CATL for the electric SUV, produced at the Thuringia plant in Erfurter Kreuz.
Source: https://background.tagesspiegel.de/mobilitaet/brandenburg-den-strom-abgestellt
