Porsche hesitates to build a battery factory in Brandenburg

According to a German media report, Porsche cannot bring itself to build a large battery cell factory in Brandenburg. At the Annual General Meeting on 7 June, Porsche's Supervisory Board members intend to put the issue on the back burner, at least for the time being.

Just a fortnight ago, Porsche gave the go-ahead for the production of the all-electric Macan in Leipzig. At the same time, the sports car manufacturer from the Volkswagen Group is considering setting up its own battery production facility. As reported, this was possibly to be built in Schwarzheide in the district of Oberspreewald-Lausitz in Brandenburg, only around 100 kilometres from Leipzig and also close to a BASF factory for cathode material in Schwarzheide.

But now the plans have apparently come to a standstill. The publication Tagesspiegel Background reports that Porsche’s Supervisory Board has its doubts as to whether the planned gigafactory for battery cells is necessary. “The problems in China, by far the largest car market, and the weak demand for electric cars in Germany in particular are causing the company’s strategists to dither. Just a few years ago, battery cells were a scarce commodity; now there is talk of overcapacity,” writes the Tagesspiegel Background on the background. On the fringes of the Annual General Meeting on 7 June, the Supervisory Board members want to put the issue to bed, at least for the time being.

Almost three years ago, Porsche founded a battery subsidiary called Cellforce, which is currently building a pilot plant near Reutlingen with a production capacity of up to 1.3 gigawatt-hours. In addition to the factory currently under construction near Reutlingen, a potential expansion to over 20 gigawatt-hours at a second location is being examined, it was reported last year – referring to Schwarzheide in Brandenburg.

For Brandenburg, Porsche’s potential cancellation would be a further setback for the establishment of a cluster for battery production. At the beginning of the week, Chinese battery manufacturer Svolt announced that it would not be building a battery factory in Lauchhammer in Brandenburg after all. And Rock Tech surprisingly did not receive federal funding from Germany for the planned lithium converter in Guben.

background.tagesspiegel.de