Varta has been in crisis for some time now. Now the ailing company wants to sell its e-car battery business. There is already a potential buyer.
The sports car manufacturer Porsche wants to buy the electric car battery business from the struggling battery company Varta. The company is in negotiations with Porsche about a possible majority investment in the Varta subsidiary V4Drive, as Varta announced last night in Ellwangen.
The companies have already signed a non-binding letter of intent. First, the Varta subsidiary will be spun off. In a second step, the Volkswagen Group subsidiary Porsche would participate via a capital increase. Varta did not disclose financial details. Whether the deal will go through depends on various factors, including a thorough review of the books by Porsche.
Varta has been in crisis for some time
The battery company has been in crisis for some time now because business is no longer running smoothly. Demand for small lithium-ion button cells, for example for headphones, fluctuates greatly. Varta has also recently complained about cheap competition from China and ongoing problems in the supply chain. To make matters worse, hackers attacked Varta’s computer systems in February and paralyzed production for several weeks.
Varta had only scrapped its sales targets in June. Before that, the group had also had to admit that its own restructuring concept was no longer sufficient to return to a profitable growth path by the end of 2026 as planned.
The electric car battery called V4Drive was intended to open up new business opportunities for the company in electromobility. It had long been speculated that Porsche would be a first customer for Varta’s battery cells.
Porsche plans its own battery production
The Zuffenhausen-based company wants to set up its own battery cell production with partners anyway. According to previous information, the sports and off-road vehicle manufacturer plans to set up production with an annual cell capacity of 10 to 20 gigawatt hours in the coming years. This would be enough for 200,000 cars with a battery capacity of 100 kilowatt hours. Porsche sold around 320,000 cars in 2023, but the majority are still combustion engines.
Investments of two to three billion euros are needed for 20 gigawatt hours, it was said. Porsche wants to look for partners for this. It is not yet clear where such cell production would take place. Porsche also wants to work with the battery company PowerCo, owned by the parent company Volkswagen.
Source: Stern
