IONWAY Received a Total Investment of 23.2 Billion

On October 6, PowerCo, the battery division of the Volkswagen Group, and Umicore, a Belgian materials technology company, said that their US$2.9 billion battery components joint venture will be named IONWAY.

At the end of 2021, Volkswagen Group announced a strategic partnership with Umicore; in September 2022, the two parties announced that they would establish a joint venture to produce battery precursors and cathode materials from 2025. At that time, both parties stated that they would share the costs and investments of the joint venture equally, and that subsequent profits would also be equally shared.

The joint venture will be headquartered in Brussels, the Belgian capital, and aims to reach an annual production capacity of 160 GWh by 2030, enough to power approximately 2.2 million pure electric vehicles. On October 6, both sides reiterated the above-mentioned production capacity targets.

In the process of electrification transformation, some European car manufacturers have established battery supply chains in Europe, and Volkswagen Group is just one of them. Thomas Jansseune, CEO of IONWAY, said, "The establishment of IONWAY sends a strong signal for the launch of battery technology in Europe. We believe that IONWAY will provide an important cornerstone for the EU to achieve the goals of the Green Deal."

The Volkswagen Group pointed out in its statement that IONWAY will supply key battery materials to Power Co’s battery factories in Europe, which can meet a large part of PowerCo’s needs in the EU, while Umicore has gained important demand for cathode materials for electric vehicles in the European market.