FILE PHOTO: Board Member of Procurement Stefan Sommer speaks ahead of Volkswagen Group's annual general meeting in Berlin, Germany, May 14, 2019. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Volkswagen is intensifying talks with Swedish startup Northvolt on plans to jointly build up battery cell production in Salzgitter, near its headquarters in Lower Saxony, one of its board members told a German newspaper.

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.