Volkswagen's new battery lab will test batteries under the most stringent conditions

Volkswagen will invest $22 million to build a new laboratory in the United States as part of the company's mass-assembly complex,media reported.The new lab is designed to carry out extreme testing of the battery packsof Volkswagen's soon-to-be locally producedelectric cars .

The facility covers 32,000 square feet (about 2,972 square meters), and Volkswagen has four similar facilities worldwide.Of the other three laboratories, one is located in Braunschweig, Germany, and the other two are located in China.

The company plans to transition its product lineup to pure electric vehicles over the next decade.Volkswagen's factory in Chattanooga is expected to start producing the ID.4 compact all-electric crossover next month.VW U.S. chief executive Scott Keogh said supply of the ID.4 at its U.S. dealerships will double this year.

Image source: Volkswagen

About 30 engineers will be employed in the new battery engineering laboratory, which will contain a climate chamber for testing electric vehicles in simulated extreme heat and cold conditions.In addition, there will be a "shaking table" inside the laboratory, which can simulate the equivalent of a year of road bumps in a week's time.The lab also allows researchers to perform thermal shock testing, exposing battery packs to extreme heat and cold to assess their durability, and water immersion and abrasion testing to simulate harsh usage environments.

The lab will be responsible for researching and validating Volkswagen's battery packs, which will be used in the ID.4 and other electric vehicles based on the MEB platform.VW said other emerging battery technologies will also be tested and validated here before being used in vehicles.

Wolfgang Demmelbauer-Ebner, chief engineering officer at Volkswagen of America, said in a statement: “With the new Battery Engineering Laboratory as a new hub for battery technology, we can apply data to local The EV market is responding quickly.”