By Michael Dabaie

QuantumScape Corp. said Friday it signed an agreement with Volkswagen Group of America Inc. to select the location of their joint-venture solid-state battery pilot-line facility by the end of 2021.

QuantumScape, which is developing lithium-metal batteries for use in electric vehicles, said the companies currently contemplate Salzgitter, Germany, for the location.

The pilot-line facility, QS-1, will initially be a 1-gigawatt hour battery cell commercial production plant for electric vehicle batteries. QuantumScape and Volkswagen plan to expand production capacity by a further 20 GWh at the same location, the company said.

In late March, QuantumScape announced an additional $100 million in funding from Volkswagen after Volkswagen confirmed through tests at its labs in Germany that QuantumScape cells met the established technical milestone.

QuantumScape shares were up 5%, to $27.80, premarket.

Write to Michael Dabaie at michael.dabaie@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

05-14-21 0917ET