MNS:
"The agreement is supported by the North Rhine Westphalia (NRW) government and has been signed by Magnis Resources and Public-Private Partnership (PPP) WiN Emscher-Lippe GmbH (WIN)."
Worth revisiting MNS battery hopes in state of North Rhine Westphalia (NRW) in light of Volkswagen's plans for Lower Saxony and BMW's deals in state of Thuringia.
Lower Saxony, gearing up for EV:
Volkswagen Supervisory board meeting last Friday, confirmed increase in EV spending to €44 billion through to 2023.
Press conference after meeting was fronted by VW Group CEO, Herbert Diess alongside Bernd Osterloh, head of VW’s works council, and Stephan Weil,
Prime Minister of Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony home to VW's Wolfsburg Plant & HQ in addition to engine plant at Salzgitter, chassis components at Brunswick and car plants at Hannover and Emden. Lower Saxony owns 12% of VW Group and controls 20% of voting rights.
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Comments from VW Press briefing and follow on Q&A:
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"40% of future value adding be accounted for by battery...we have to be part of this value-adding"
"Battery factories? Definitely. We will have to build them in Lower Saxony, also because of the proximity to production."
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"For us, of course, the most important was to create future viability for the Lower Saxony plants. We have made a major step forward."..."At the end of this development, I'm absolutely certain Lower Saxony will be a centre of European electric mobility."
Press Question :
Mr Weil, before you mentioned the plural, you said 'locations in Lower Saxony for cell production', is that just for Volkswagen?
"Yes, I used the plural intentionally, we are at the beginning of battery cell production...the most important component should be produced close to production of the vehicles"
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"We have different possibilities under review to enter the cell manufacturing."
"Together with SKI we feel confident that we are able to invest in new cells, there is a great openness for a collaboration"
State of Thuringia also gearing up for EV:
Jul 9 2018 - CATL revealing details on battery factory in Erfurt
"The agreement between CATL and the Free State of Thuringia has been signed today as part of the German-Chinese intergovernmental consultations in the Federal Chancellery in Berlin."
Nov 7 2018 - BMW secures CATL battery cells worth four billion euros
With BMW also forming consortium for own European cells in longer term:
Oct 15, 2018 -BMW, Northvolt & Umicore to create green battery
"A new technology consortium consisting of BMW, Northvolt and Umicore will develop a sustainable value chain for battery cells."
With VW Group and BMW deals accounted for makes you wonder if 'Listrom' has any automakers left to deal with in Germany?
Meanwhile NRW Govt. appealing directly to Tesla recently:
1 Aug 2018 - State of North Rhine-Westphalia lobbies for Tesla Gigafactory
3 Aug 2018 - German state of NRW lobbies for Tesla Gigafactory
(20min delay)
