Chief executive Herbert Diess said the group is "planning to operate six gigafactories on our own and in collaboration with partners."
The plants, to be set up by 2030, will have a total capacity of 240 Gigawatt hours.
To this end, Volkswagen announced a deal to raise its stake in Swedish battery maker Northvolt, which is currently building a gigafactory in the Swedish city of Skelleftea.
VW previously owned 20 percent of Northvolt, but didn't disclose how big its new share would be.
It placed an order worth €14 billion (RM69bil) over the next 10 years from Northvolt while also acquiring from the Swedish battery maker its stake for a factory in Salzgitter, Germany, which would become one of the six upcoming plants announced by VW.
Charging stations will also be significantly expanded in coming years.
"We will multiply the number of fast charging points in Europe by a factor of five over the next four years," said Diess.
Cooperation deals have been agreed with Britain's BP, Spain's Iberdrola and Italy's Enel, VW said.
The charging stations set up in conjunction with partners are aimed at covering a third of European e-mobility demand by 2025.
READ MORE: China's Geely to add US$5bil battery plant in EV push
From pouch to prismatic batteries
Volkswagen plans to gradually switch from pouch-type Li-ion battery used in its electric vehicles to prismatic battery. It said the prismatic battery offers the best conditions for the transition to the solid state cell – the next quantum leap in battery technology, which it anticipates for the middle of the decade.
Among three types of batteries - prismatic, pouch and cylindrical - prismatic batteries had 49% share in the EV battery market in 2020, while pouch-type batteries had 28%, according to industry tracker SNE Research.
“One of the reasons that Volkswagen has chosen to switch could be to enhance electric vehicles’ safety, as prismatic batteries are generally considered to have lower energy density than pouch-type batteries, making them relatively safer,” said Han Sang-won, an analyst at Daishin Securities.
South Korea’s LG Energy Solution and SK Innovation have been manufacturing pouch-type batteries for Volkswagen, while CATL and Samsung SDI have supplied it with prismatic ones. Northvolt will make prismatic and cylindrical batteries.
“It really depends on how fast Volkswagen manages to switch to prismatic type batteries. Currently, there are not enough prismatic battery supplies, and it would take quite a while for Volkswagen to fully adopt them,” said Han.
Turning a page
Volkswagen group, which includes brands from Audi to Seat to Porsche, has ploughed more than €30 billion (RM147bil) into e-mobility in order to comply with stricter environmental rules in the EU.
Its eponymous flagship brand said in March that it was aiming for electric vehicles to account for 70 percent of its European sales by 2030.
The VW brand also said it would launch at least one new battery-powered model each year between now and 2030.
VW's all-electric ID.3 became the second best-selling car in Europe last December, and the brand has US e-mobility pioneer Tesla in its sights with its 2021 ID.4 SUV model.
Tesla has upped the pressure on major German carmakers such as Volkswagen in recent years with its plans to open a plant outside Berlin next July.
But Volkswagen's electric push was also accelerated by its "dieselgate" scandal, which rocked Germany's car industry and cost the company dearly in both cash and reputational harm.
Legal cases grind on over VW's admission in 2015 that it illegally fitted 11 million diesel vehicles worldwide with software to make them appear less polluting.
Former Volkswagen chief Martin Winterkorn is due to stand trial from April, accused of fraud in the diesel trickery.
