Volkswagen earlier this month pledged to spend 1 billion euros ($1.12 billion) on the project, which it says depends on certain economic pre-conditions, such as subsidized electricity.

In an interview published on Saturday, Volkswagen board member Stefan Sommer told Boersen-Zeitung he was confident that battery cell production in Salzgitter would be realised.

"We will intensify our talks over the next weeks with regard to a more detailed planning," he was quoted as saying, adding Volkswagen was also looking at other locations in Europe for potential battery cell production, not specifying further.

(Reporting by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Alexander Smith)