Volkswagen’s PowerCo CEO Says Salzgitter Will Go 24/7 in Mid-September — With 1 Million Cells Targeted by Year-End

PowerCo CEO Frank Blome says Volkswagen’s Salzgitter battery-cell plant is set to move into large-series production in mid-September, with the factory then operating seven days a week around the clock. Blome also said PowerCo is targeting at least one million cells from the plant by the end of 2026, a quantity he described as enough for about 10,000 electric vehicles. The statements came in an interview with Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung reported by dts Nachrichtenagentur.¹

The important distinction is that September would not mark the start of battery-cell production at Salzgitter. Volkswagen and PowerCo commissioned the plant on December 17, 2025 and produced the first Unified Cells there that day. Volkswagen said those initial cells were intended for final vehicle validation, while its 2025 annual report described series production as a 2026 step.²³

That makes the newly reported target an industrial-ramp story rather than another factory-opening announcement: PowerCo has already shown that Salzgitter can make its cell design, and Blome is now putting a date and an operating cadence on the attempt to make it at large-series scale.¹²

The one-million-cell target is not the plant’s capacity number

Volkswagen’s official Salzgitter material lists an initial expansion stage of up to 20 GWh of annual production capacity, with the option to expand to as much as 40 GWh if needed.² Those capacity figures should not be treated as another way of expressing Blome’s one-million-cell target. The company has not provided enough information in the sources reviewed here to convert that 2026 cell count into GWh, utilization, yield or a percentage of the plant’s eventual capacity.

Blome’s year-end figure is therefore best read for what it is: a stated early production target during the shift from validation output to large-series manufacturing, not proof that Salzgitter will be operating near its planned annual capacity in 2026.¹²

Salzgitter is also the production template for PowerCo’s Canadian factory

The ramp has a direct North American connection, although it is not a new milestone for PowerCo’s St. Thomas, Ontario project. Volkswagen calls Salzgitter the lead plant for PowerCo’s standard-factory network and says manufacturing experience and personnel from the German site are to be transferred to its later plants in Valencia and St. Thomas.² In March, Volkswagen also described the three factories as part of one global PowerCo production network.⁴

That makes Salzgitter an early operating test of a production system Volkswagen intends to replicate in Canada. It does not establish that St. Thomas has moved up its schedule, reached a new construction milestone, or will launch with the same chemistry, output or yield as the German plant.

The Canadian factory was still under construction in late July. A construction-industry report said PowerCo continued to target initial battery production there in 2027, while the Ontario government also described the project as under construction at the end of July.⁵⁶ The 2027 date remains a target rather than a guaranteed completion date.

For now, the next measurable milestone is in Salzgitter itself: whether the plant actually makes the reported mid-September transition to large-series production and whether PowerCo reaches the one-million-cell target Blome laid out for year-end.¹

Sources

Footnotes

1. dts Nachrichtenagentur via FinanzNachrichten.de, Aug. 29, 2026 — reports Frank Blome’s interview with Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung and attributes to him the mid-September large-series-production plan, 24/7 operation and at-least-one-million-cell year-end target. The direct FAS interview was not independently inspectable in the linked research run, so these future operating targets remain visibly attributed. https://www.finanznachrichten.de/nachrichten-2026-08/69442070-vw-will-bis-jahresende-erste-million-batteriezellen-produzieren-003.htm ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

2. Volkswagen Group / PowerCo, Dec. 17, 2025 — official Salzgitter commissioning release covering the first Unified Cells, validation use, gradual 2026 ramp, published capacity plan, and Salzgitter’s lead-plant relationship to Valencia and St. Thomas. https://www.volkswagen-group.com/en/press-releases/start-of-european-battery-cell-production-powerco-commissions-salzgitter-gigafactory-20045 ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

3. Volkswagen Group Annual Report 2025 — says Salzgitter delivered first cells for further validation and that series production was slated for 2026. https://annualreport2025.volkswagen-group.com/group-management-report/sustainable-value-enhancement/technology.html ↩

4. Volkswagen Group / PowerCo, Mar. 25, 2026 — describes Salzgitter, Valencia and St. Thomas as part of PowerCo’s global production network. https://www.volkswagen-group.com/en/press-releases/rene-reif-appointed-new-chief-operations-officer-of-powerco-se-20234 ↩

5. Daily Commercial News / ConstructConnect Canada, Jul. 27, 2026 — independent construction reporting on the St. Thomas project and PowerCo’s reported 2027 initial-production target. https://canada.constructconnect.com/dcn/news/projects/2026/07/steel-concrete-and-scale-define-powercos-st-thomas-gigafactory-build ↩

6. Government of Ontario, Jul. 28, 2026 — Ontario public newsroom material describing the St. Thomas PowerCo gigafactory as under construction. https://news.ontario.ca/ ↩