Weak that they’re not partnering with CATL or Panasonic to build stationary storage with excess manufacturing capacity.

alephnerd 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> CATL

Battery technology and chemistry is export controlled by China [0], which has hurt European attempts at doing what you mentioned [1].

> Panasonic

They have chosen to concentrate on America instead [2]

[0] - https://www.mayerbrown.com/en/insights/publications/2025/10/...

[1] - https://merics.org/en/comment/chinese-restrictions-threaten-...

[2] - https://www.reuters.com/technology/panasonic-localise-its-us...

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toomuchtodo 4 hours ago | parent [-]

CATL is building one of the largest battery manufacturing facilities in Europe in Spain.

https://www.reuters.com/world/china/chinas-catl-breaks-groun...

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46061492 (“CATL's Spain plant will likely be one of Europe's largest LFP battery production hubs at ~50GWh of production capacity, employing ~4k workers with an investment of ~€4.1B.”)

	▲	alephnerd 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		China views Spain as a better strategic partner [0] than Germany. China and Spain signed a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in 2021 [1] and Spain is lobbying on behalf of China against the "Made in EU" act [2]. On the other hand, Germany is backing EU quotas and origination requirements to push back against Chinese overproduction [3]. Of course, China and Germany have fallen out due to Ukraine [4] as well as China's negative perception about the EU as an institution [5]. [0] - https://cn.chinadiplomacy.org.cn/2026-06/19/content_11855853... [1] - https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/gjhdq_665435/3265_665445/3356_6... [2] - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-04-16/china-lob... [3] - https://www.ft.com/content/06b7fe04-25f7-445b-824a-135ae7359... [4] - https://www.reuters.com/world/china/germany-closer-us-than-c... [5] - https://fddi.fudan.edu.cn/_t2515/57/f8/c21257a743416/page.ht...

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verdverm 8 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

They are switching some lines to building military vehicles aiui

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alephnerd 6 hours ago | parent [-]

> switching some lines to building military

It got vetoed by Qatar (their SWF owns 17% of all voting shares in Volkswagen) because that would have meant working with Israeli companies [0] despite Germany being dependent on the Israeli Arrow system [1] to counter Russian systems.

Now that factory (Osnabrueck) is one of the factories on the chopping block.

And this is why Volkswagen is going to be a slow moving train crash - Lower Saxony, the Qatari royal family, the Pötsch/Porsche family, and IG Metall are not aligned.

[0] - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-10/qatar-blo...

[1] - https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/germany-d...

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jacooper 4 hours ago | parent [-]

Bohoo, can't build weapons for genociders, poor me!

What a shitty management that can't find any solutions other than building weapons for war criminals.

	▲	alephnerd 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		> What a shitty management that can't find any solutions other than building weapons for war criminals No one else wants the factory nor the workers other than Rafael's JV with the German government. Now they are part of the 100,000 being laid off. Germany (and Romania) will still use the Iron Dome and other Israeli systems, but now it'll be "Made in India" [0], so the only people impacted were VW employees in Osnabrueck who are now laid off. [0] - https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/byaub5cmfl