Volkswagen

• This week at IAA Munich, the Volkswagen Group unveiled its “unified” battery cell. 
• Developed by VW subsidiary PowerCo, the prismatic cell will debut in the automaker’s line of affordable EVs launching in 2026. 
• Over time, VW plans to use the cell across all its brands—from VW to Porsche—and adapt it to chemistries including LFP, sodium-ion and solid-state. 

The Volkswagen Group’s years-long effort to create a standardized battery cell to use across its electric portfolio is finally coming together. This week at IAA Munich, Europe’s biggest auto expo, the automaker said it completed development of its “unified cell” and laid out a roadmap for the technology’s future. 

The idea behind the standardized cell is to unlock super-sized economies of scale around one of the most crucial EV components, VW executives explained at the show. That’s critical, because almost no manufacturers besides Tesla have managed to turn a profit on their electric cars—largely because they’ve been crushed by high battery costs and limited production scale. Carmakers in Europe in particular need to meet escalating emissions rules and combat an influx of high-quality, highly subsidized Chinese offerings too. 

The Volkswagen Group unveiled its new “unified cell” this week and cell-to-pack battery system. 

Photo by: InsideEVs

Now, as Volkswagen prepares a renewed EV product offensive and advanced electrical architectures sourced from Rivian, it also has big plans for the batteries that are central to any EV.

“This brings us back to the driver’s seat in one of the key technologies of our industry,” said Thomas Schmall, member of the Volkswagen board of management responsible for technology, at IAA. 

The prismatic cell developed by PowerCo, the automaker’s battery subsidiary, will start series production within “weeks” at its factory in Salzgitter, Germany and ramp up next year, PowerCo CEO Frank Blome said during a presentation. Production will follow at plants in Spain and Canada in 2026 and 2027, respectively, he said. 

The cell will power up to 80% of the VW Group’s EV models from 2030 and extend to all brands, the company said. That means variations of it will be found in everything from Volkswagens and Škodas to Porsches and Audis. And they’ll go into vehicles sold across the U.S., China and Europe. Notably, Porsche recently scrapped its own in-house battery manufacturing project. 

“The basic idea for us is to standardize things wherever possible. We customize wherever necessary,” said VW battery executive Guenther Mendl.

Volkswagen MEB+ battery pack with prismatic unified cells. 

Photo by: InsideEVs

The unified cell will debut in the VW Group’s “Electric Urban Car Family,” four models on the new MEB+ platform that VW says will start at around 25,000 euros, or roughly $29,000. Those include the Volkswagen ID. Polo and ID. Cross, along with the Cupra Raval hatchback.

VW says the unified cell will deliver a driving range of up to 450 kilometers (279 miles) in those cars. It says the cell demonstrates a volumetric energy density of 660 watt-hours per liter, a 10% improvement over VW’s previous cells. 

Ultimately, though, range and other specs will vary from vehicle to vehicle. VW says the cell can be adapted to different dimensions and can work in large and small vehicles. It can work with 400-volt and 800-volt architectures too.

VW’s unified prismatic cells can be adapted to different sizes, executives said at IAA.

Photo by: InsideEVs

The unified cell will eventually employ several different battery chemistries, according to VW, starting with nickel manganese cobalt (NMC), which is the most popular format in the West. Soon, PowerCo will start manufacturing cheaper lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cells too, which are taking off globally because of their low cost and durability over years of charging. 

“Technologically speaking we’re still at the very beginning,” Blome said, through a translator. “So we’re going to first have NMC, then LFP, then sodium and solid-state is also in the pipeline. It’s included in the development roadmap, and we’re also talking about further architectures and cell chemistries that we’ve started to work on.”

VW will start producing LFP unified cells at a factory in Valencia, Spain, in 2027. Solid-state batteries are likely farther off, as no company has successfully commercialized this holy grail battery technology. However, at IAA, Volkswagen rolled out its first demonstration vehicle with solid-state battery tech, a Ducati motorcycle with cells from VW-backed QuantumScape.  

Executives said they chose the prismatic form factor—a rectangular box rather than a cylinder or flexible pouch—so that it could accommodate different chemistries over time. The shape is key in another way, too. In a new design for the VW Group, the cells stack together and slot directly into a vehicle’s battery pack, rather than being packaged into a handful of modules first.

This cell-to-pack technology eliminates parts and frees up more space for batteries inside a vehicle, boosting range while cutting weight and cost, Mendl said, also calling the design “extremely important.”

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VW isn’t alone here. The cheaper-to-build, overhauled EV platform that Ford announced in August uses prismatic cells integrated directly into a pack as well. The Rivian R2 eliminates the modules found in its R1 series. General Motors bet big on a scalable battery platform called Ultium, based on battery packs with different configurations of standardized modules. Now it’s also looking into prismatic cells that can eliminate battery substructures and reduce the number of modules. 

Volkswagen won’t take on the brunt of manufacturing all on its own. The company said it plans to offload about 50% of cell production to suppliers, which, according to a presentation attended by InsideEVs Germany, include Gotion, CATL, Samsung SDI and LG Energy Solution. 

The cells aren’t just for cars, either. They will also go into stationary battery banks built by Elli, VW’s new energy storage company. This week, VW said Elli will launch its first 40-megawatt-hour storage installation by the end of the year. 

Contact the author: Tim.Levin@InsideEVs.com