Volkswagen’s battery company PowerCo on Friday claimed a breakthrough for sustainable batteries introducing a “completely new” manufacturing process: dry coating, Kallanish reports.

The technology currently being tested and optimised at a lab in northern Germany is set to reduce energy consumption in cell manufacturing by 30% and floor space by 15%. The proof of concept technology has reached its first milestone and should be commercially ready by the end of 2024, the company says.

For that, PowerCo signed a joint development agreement with German printing machine specialist Koenig & Bauer. The machine for industrial power coating is to be operational in 2026/2027, saving PowerCo “hundreds of millions of Euros each year” in production costs, Volkswagen said in a statement on Friday.

“What the solid-state cell is to the product, dry coating is to production – a real game changer. If scale successfully, it will give us a unique position on the market and definite competitive advantages,” says Frank Blome, ceo of PowerCo.

Electrodes will be made without the traditional wet-coating and subsequently energy-intensive drying process. Additionally, the new procedure will not require chemical solvents, increasing the sustainability of the cells. PowerCo’s dry coating technology will feature a powder coating instead of the usual slurry, allowing direct calendering.

“Technologies like dry coating showcase PowerCo’s technological prowess,” says Thomas Schmall, head of technology at Volkswagen Group and chairman at PowerCo. “We have the necessary know-how and the right experts to take cell production to a new level and offer significant cost advantages to our customers. Our objective is to establish an industrial production of sustainable and affordable batteries.”

The technology is planned to be used in PowerCo’s gigafactories under construction in Spain, Germany and Canada. Details of the contract with Koenig are confidential.

Tesla has already introduced dry electrode coating to the production of its new 4680 cells, with technology reportedly acquired from California-based start-up Maxwell Technologies. The EV maker has confirmed technical issues related to the technology, preventing cell production ramp-ups in gigafactories in the US and in Germany.

Another Tesla technology, known as giga casting, has been eyed by a different legacy carmaker. Toyota announced its next-generation electric vehicles will be built with significant component integration, in a new modular structure, just like Tesla models. (See related story)