According to Volkswagen’s battery boss, the company has perfected a dry coating battery manufacturing technique that, if scaled up, could reduce the cost of cell production by hundreds of millions of euros annually.

The automaker claimed that it and the maker of printing presses Koenig & Bauer AG were the first to develop the method for both the positive and negative electrode.

“No-one else can do this today,” battery chief Thomas Schmall said at a media roundtable.

Traditional battery production involves applying materials for the cathode, or positive electrode, and anode, or negative electrode, to a carrier foil using a chemical paste combination that must dry, consuming a lot of energy.

Schmall said that by using an adhesive that doesn’t need to dry, dry coating avoids that step.

According to sources who spoke to Reuters in March, Tesla, which acquired a comparable method by purchasing startup Maxwell Technologies in 2019, has so far been able to dry-coat the anode but is still experiencing problems with the cathode.

Volkswagen claimed that its technology, which has produced several hundred cells on a pilot line, should be ready for commercial production by 2027.

The automaker anticipates that the method will help reduce cell costs by about 50% when combined with increased manufacturing and less expensive raw materials, according to Schmall.

According to PowerCo Chief Operating Officer Sebastian Wolf, its cell factories currently under construction in Germany, Spain, and Canada will still have drying lines but may be converted to remove them in the future, freeing up about 15% of manufacturing floor space.

(Adapted from FlipBoard.com)

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