René Reif appointed new Chief Operations Officer of PowerCo SE
PowerCo SE, Volkswagen Group's battery company, has appointed René Reif as Chief Operations Officer, succeeding Sebastian Wolf.
over 30 years at Daimler AG
since 2021
end of 2025
What Happened
PowerCo SE, the battery company of Volkswagen Group, has announced the appointment of René Reif as its new Chief Operations Officer (COO). He succeeds Sebastian Wolf, who has led the operations department since 2021 and played a key role in developing the standard factory concept and commissioning the Salzgitter gigafactory at the end of 2025. Reif, who joined PowerCo at the beginning of 2025 and was most recently responsible for the St. Thomas Gigafactory in Canada, previously spent over 30 years at Daimler AG in management positions in Brazil, China, and Berlin.
“With René Reif, we have gained a highly experienced production expert. For more than three decades, he has built and managed factories and global production networks around the world. Under his leadership, we will continue to systematically ramp up the cell factories in Salzgitter, Valencia and St. Thomas and further strengthen PowerCo's global production network.”
Why this matters
Reif brings over three decades of production expertise to lead the ramp-up of PowerCo's cell factories in Salzgitter, Valencia, and St. Thomas, strengthening its global production network.
Terms in This Story
- COO
- Chief Operations Officer, a senior executive responsible for the day-to-day operations of a company.
- Gigafactory
- A large-scale factory for producing batteries or electric vehicles, typically with annual capacity measured in gigawatt-hours.
- PowerCo SE
- The battery company of the Volkswagen Group, focusing on manufacturing battery cells and developing battery technologies.
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