At their recent annual media conference, Volkswagen Group officials unveiled a new battery configuration—not a new battery, but a new way of arranging them. Why does this matter?
The arrangement of batteries in vehicles directly affects their range. By exploring this approach—one already pioneered by China’s BYD—Volkswagen Group, which includes Audi and Porsche, could create cars with impressive range at a significantly lower cost.
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The Basics of the Technology
Volkswagen’s new battery arrangement, Cell to Pack (CTP), has been years in the making. Last year, VW reached an agreement with truckmaker Mahindra to supply the technology, although the German automaker hadn’t provided a detailed description of what their version of CTP—known as unified cells—would actually look like at that time. However, this research has been underway for at least five years.
Chinese automaker BYD already uses CTP, and it’s been suggested—though not confirmed—that Tesla employs it in the Model Y. It’s important to note there’s no strict definition of what CTP entails, but the concept is relatively simple, with three key reasons to adopt it.
Reason 1: it provides structural rigidity through a “frameless” design. Essentially, CTP allows the battery pack to serve as the frame and floor of the vehicle, eliminating the need for a separate frame. The main benefit of this approach is clear: reduced weight.
Cutting Costs by Tailoring Technology to Different Cars
CTP also reduces redundancy in the circuitry. Similar to what BYD does with the Seal, Volkswagen plans to use a wired battery management system to monitor the battery’s circuitry—essentially adopting the same approach as BYD.
As first reported by Auto Express, Volkswagen can use lithium-ion phosphate (LFP) batteries, which they’ve already introduced in the ID.3 (in Europe) and plan to use in the upcoming ID.1—though it may or may not come to the U.S. Regardless, VW—and Audi and Porsche—customers should take note.
CTP batteries make cars lighter, and lighter cars are simply more enjoyable to drive. Moreover, CTP doesn’t have to rely on LFP, but it’s a more affordable option, and VW has been spending up to a third of the cost of each EV on battery technology. A breakthrough is crucial in the race to develop more affordable EV tech, lighter cars, and smaller vehicles with decent range.
A Transitional Technology
The ultimate goal in battery technology is solid-state technology. To put it simply, increased “density” is like fitting more gasoline into the same-sized tank.
While we’re still a few years away from mass-producing solid-state batteries, which will address this issue and more, CTP serves as a transition to solid-state technology. It allows for the use of cheaper materials like LFP in the same-sized “container.”
This is important because LFP is a more affordable battery option, but it’s less energy-dense than pricier lithium-ion batteries. The solution is to add more cells.
You get a lighter vehicle overall by reducing structural weight—thanks to the elimination of much of the container holding the battery. This means you can use a smaller motor, further reducing weight.
How-To Geek’s Take
There’s one complication: tariffs. Volkswagen’s goal is to build multiple identical battery plants worldwide. The idea is modularity, where each battery plant follows the same design, and every EV car platform is essentially the same as well—just scaled up or down depending on what’s built on top.
For example, a battery plant in Canada (where VW has its North American facility) could produce batteries for high-demand vehicles in the U.S., such as Volkswagen, Audi, and Porsche crossovers. Likewise, plants in Germany and Spain could supply batteries for smaller cars that are more popular in those markets. However, if VW wanted to bring the new electric Golf to the U.S. but were primarily producing them in Mexico instead of Tennessee, those cars would be imported from Mexico.
However, this plan has been complicated by tariffs on Canada and Mexico and upcoming tariffs on Europe. At the press conference, Volkswagen COO Arno Antlitz explained that one of VW’s responses would be to produce more Golfs in Mexico for export to Europe, as there’s no trade war between the EU and Mexico.
The potential impact—which future electric Golf owners need to understand—is that we may never see these cars in the U.S. Not because there’s no demand, but because U.S. tariffs would make them prohibitively expensive and non-competitive, regardless of any technological or pricing breakthroughs Volkswagen or other automakers might achieve.
