Porsche turns off the juice to battery subsidiary Cellforce
Clear-cutting at Cellforce: Car manufacturer Porsche is withdrawing from the production of high-performance traction batteries for vehicles.
Porsches sell better with than without.
(Image: Kristina Beer)
Against the backdrop of weakening demand for electric cars, the German car manufacturer Porsche AG is apparently giving up its own production of battery cells. The Cellforce Group subsidiary founded for this purpose in Baden-Württemberg is likely to be reduced to a research division.
According to dpa, almost 200 of a total of around 280 jobs are about to be cut. Der Spiegel reported on the corresponding notification of a wave of redundancies at the responsible employment agency in Reutlingen. Porsche only publicly launched the Cellforce project four years ago; construction work began less than three years ago in the Mahden industrial area near Kirchentellinsfurt for a development site including pilot production of battery cells for small series (for up to 1,000 vehicles per year).
Subsidies do not guarantee success
The public sector has promised a total of 60 million euros in funding: 43 million euros from the federal budget and 17 million euros from the state of Baden-Württemberg. It is not known how much of this has actually been spent. Last but not least, the establishment of domestic production, including the European supply chain, was to be secured.
"The establishment of competitive battery cell production in Baden-Württemberg is a first-class economic policy task and a strategic goal of the state government," said Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut, Minister of Economic Affairs of the German state, at the laying of the foundation stone in October 2022. It is an "important step towards establishing Baden-Württemberg as a leading battery location and making it fit for the future." Eleven months later, the CDU politician visited the site again, and since then there have been no new press releases on the Celforce website.
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A larger Cellforce plant with series production of car batteries was also under discussion at Porsche, but has not yet been implemented. In the meantime, Porsche has rowed back and is once again investing in the further development of combustion engines for motor vehicles. The write-downs on Cellforce are likely to have a negative impact on Porsche's earnings in the three-digit million range.
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