Towards the end of 2020 Volkswagen developed a special returnable container that can be used both for the shipment of lithium-ion battery cells and assembled battery modules. The containers, which were based on a propriety concept developed by the Volkswagen Group Components division and produced in collaboration with various (unnamed) partners, form part of an overall zero-emission sustainability strategy at the carmaker.

The containers are currently used to move battery cells from the supplier LG Chem in Wroclaw, Poland by rail into the VW Group Components plant in Brunswick, Germany. The same containers are also used to move completed battery systems built there to VW’s plant in Zwickau, again by rail.

“The containers are optimised for delivery by train, which has an essential impact to achieve the goals for CO2-neutral logistic chain,” said a spokesperson for VW Group Components. VW has said previously that since 2017 it has been able to reduce carbon emissions at Zwickau by 60% or more than 100,000 tonnes per year.

Brunswick will be supplying 500,000 battery systems a year for delivery to Zwickau at full production (as well as running gear components, and front and rear axles), making the choice of returnable containers a wise one.

The Zwickau plant is also now the first facility in the VW network making only electric vehicles, in the forms of the ID.3 electric sedan and the ID.4 electric SUV. However, the Emden plant in Germany will begin making the ID.4 next year, as will the Chattanooga plant in the US, opening the potential for the further deployment of the new containers.

Thermoplastic safety