Volkswagen AG VLKPY 1.52% has opened a new front in its campaign to close the gap on rivals Tesla Motors Inc. TSLA -2.00% and Nissan Motor Co. NSANY 1.02% in the field of electric vehicles, buying a stake in battery developer QuantumScape Corp., according to Bloomberg News.
The news agency said VW, the world’s largest automaker, had bought a 5% stake in the company through its VW, with options to raise its stake, citing people familiar with the matter. Neither company confirmed the news to Bloomberg, and neither replied immediately to requests for comment by Fortune.
QuantumScape, based in San Jose and privately-owned, is aiming to develop a different kind of battery technology that Bloomberg said could triple the range of VW’s existing Electric Vehicles and offer better safety performance.
There are few publicly-available details about the company, whose website appears to consist of little more than a homepage. On LinkedIn, the company says it “seeks to change the paradigm in energy storage by developing a completely new class of electrical energy device.”