Volkswagen’s Battery Valley Tech stars in search of the perfect battery

Wolfsburg, Salzgitter and Braunschweig: In the new “Battery Valley”, Volkswagen is accelerating even swifter towards becoming a software-defined, climate-friendly company. Tech stars from all over the world are developing and researching the future of the battery here. What makes this region so special? What is it like to live and work here? We visited two experts, Chang Liu and Sarah Dieck.

It is the dawning of a new era. Volkswagen is committed to the electrification of its vehicles – the brand is investing around 18 billion euros in future technologies by 2026 alone. One of these technologies is battery technology. The share of purely electric car sales in Europe is expected to rise to more than 70 percent by 2030 – and to more than 50 percent in China and the USA. That is why Volkswagen is developing the region between the Lower Saxony locations of Wolfsburg, Salzgitter and Braunschweig into “Battery Valley”. From that location, a newly founded European public limited company will drive forward the expansion of the fast-growing battery business. The company, headquartered in Salzgitter, is responsible for all activities from the purchase of raw materials to the development of the Volkswagen unit cell and the management of initially six gigafactories in Europe. Within the Volkswagen Group, battery activities are the responsibility of the Group Board of Management’s Technology Division.

It is no coincidence that the name “Battery Valley” alludes to California’s Silicon Valley. Similar to the west coast of the USA, top experts from all over the world work in interdisciplinary teams to help design the world of tomorrow with new technologies and products.

From China to Braunschweig

The international atmosphere in the Battery Valley is absolutely fascinating.

Chang Liu
Procurement High-Voltage Batteries

This aspect also inspires Chang Liu, who works in high-voltage battery purchasing. “I come from China and work with colleagues from Germany, Korea, India, Great Britain and North America. The international atmosphere here is absolutely fascinating,” says the automotive engineering graduate. Chang Liu completed her Bachelor’s degree in China and then came to Braunschweig from Hefei in Anhui Province: “Here I was able to continue my studies and learn a foreign language at the same time.”

She graduated from the University of Braunschweig in 2015 and then worked in technical consulting, first for Volkswagen, then for Audi. But she keeps being drawn back: “I left Braunschweig three times. For an internship in Hamburg, for my Master’s thesis I went to Berlin, and I lived in Ingolstadt for a year. I always came back,” she says with a laugh. She felt the move to Volkswagen was “quite natural because of my studies in Braunschweig”. The university works in close cooperation with Volkswagen in the field of vehicle technology. In mid-2019, she will start work at Volkswagen Procurement, starting as a buyer for battery cells and modules.

First of all, she deals with global sourcing. An interdisciplinary task: colleagues from quality assurance and logistics are always on board, as are engineers. She negotiates prices with suppliers, analyses production costs, ensures the supply of top-quality battery components for vehicle production.

At the beginning of 2022, Chang Liu will move to project purchasing. “There, for example, it’s about bringing technical improvements into series production. This can only succeed through the interaction of development, quality assurance, logistics and procurement,” says Liu.

At home in Battery Valley: Chang Liu came to Braunschweig from Hefei in eastern China.

How does Chang Liu see the way to ZERO, Volkswagen’s path to becoming a climate-neutral company? “We are all working together towards the goal of reducing CO₂ by as much as possible. The decisive factors are even greater ranges and faster charging, but also lower costs for customers of electric cars. I can contribute to this in purchasing by bringing a good, stable supplier into the supply chain,” she says.

Chang Liu appreciates more than just the work in Battery Valley: “Braunschweig and Wolfsburg are small, but very pleasant cities with a wide range of museums, theatres and restaurants. In the Harz mountains you can go hiking and even ski a little in winter.” In Braunschweig, the young woman lives right in the centre (“I love that”) and likes to take the bus or ride her bike. She gets to work in Wolfsburg by train or by carpooling.

Chancing upon electromobility

The close quarters and nature also inspire Sarah Dieck. She works as a project manager in the Battery Systems Development & Electronics department. Her speciality is hybrid vehicles. The 34-year-old grew up in the Braunschweig region, lives and works in Braunschweig and appreciates “that you can get to everything here by bike. Braunschweig has a beautiful old town and you live very centrally here. You can quickly get to the Harz mountains, where you can go hiking. Or quickly to Hamburg or Berlin if you feel like a big city.”

If you drive an electric car, you will quickly become hooked on it.

Sarah Dieck
Project Manager Battery Systems Development & Electronics.

Sarah Dieck studied business administration at the University of Applied Sciences in Wolfsburg and then worked in event management. She then moved to Australia because she wanted to see something of the world. After her return, she worked for Volkswagen via an external service provider and came into contact with electromobility “rather by chance”.

When jobs in the development of high-voltage batteries were advertised in Braunschweig, Dieck applied.

Today, as a project manager for industrialisation, she ensures the start of production of the next generation of plug-in hybrid models. “I am the communication hub, where quality assurance, procurement, production, planning and logistics come together,” she says.

Sarah Dieck sees hybrid vehicles with electric and combustion engines as an important “door opener” for customers who still have reservations about pure electromobility: “In these vehicles, they can already feel the electric driving without having to completely leave behind what is familiar to them. Those who regularly drive electric vehicles quickly become hooked on it.” The way to ZERO, which Volkswagen has laid down in its strategy, has no alternative for Dieck: “It is our responsibility to do everything we can to improve the climate situation. The sooner we shift our driving to electric cars that run on sustainably generated electricity, the better.”

Improving the climate situation is our responsibility. The sooner we drive electric cars, the better, says Sarah Dieck.

Designing the electrical revolution together

Chang Liu and Sarah Dieck are two experts who are shaping the future of mobility at Volkswagen. “Completely new products are being created here, both in terms of the batteries themselves and the relevant software,” says Dieck. To industrialise these new products, Volkswagen is also using innovative manufacturing methods and new processes, both in development and in production. “We work here with experts from all over the world – and the great thing is: because there are fixed formats for personal exchange, you also get to know each other privately. Some of my colleagues are also friends. The great cultural diversity is very inspiring,” says Dieck.

“Volkswagen is a great employer, especially for young people who want to learn,” adds Chang Liu. She regularly uses the company’s learning platforms and entry-level programmes. “I can learn about a lot of topics and see if I’m interested in them,” she says.

Sarah Dieck and Chang Liu want to help shape the dawn of a new era of mobility.

The opportunities of a global company, the dawn of a new era of mobility, working in interdisciplinary and multicultural teams, while living in small and medium-sized cities with a high quality of life – these are the special features of working in Battery Valley that both women emphasise. Is there nothing they miss? Yes, says Liu: “I miss a really good Chinese or Korean restaurant in Braunschweig or the surrounding area. I love Asian food.” Dieck would like to see really high mountains like in the Alps for skiing. “Maybe that could be changed,” she says with a wink of the eye.

Note:
Volkswagen’s battery team in Battery Valley is set to grow from 750 to 1,200 employees in a short space of time. Of around 500 vacancies, more than 200 will be filled externally. To this end, Talent Marketing is launching a “digital only” personnel marketing and recruiting campaign that leads to the landing page https://www.volkswagen-karriere.de/de/specials/battery-valley.html via the Volkswagen Career sites in the social media Xing, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.