German car group Volkswagen has decided to expand its green strategy by investing in an energy transformation fund supported by the European Union, with the idea of jointly supporting technology companies working in the field of energy transformation, according to Reuters.

Europe’s largest carmaker, which has pledged to reach climate neutrality by 2050, said on Wednesday it had entered into a strategic partnership with the EIT InnoEnergy and would become a shareholder in the EU-backed fund.

This decision is in line with other measures taken by Volkswagen, which in September unveiled its own venture capital fund, with resources worth 300 million euro, which will invest in decarbonization projects and start-ups in this field.

“The idea is simple, to use InnoEnergy as an additional way to find interesting companies and support them in expanding their business models,” said Volkswagen’s M&A director Jens Wiese, according to Agerpres.

Volkswagen wants to become the world’s largest supplier of electric vehicles by the middle of this decade and in this regard has unveiled a strategy that envisages the construction of six battery cell factories for electric vehicles in Europe by the end of this decade.

Supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a European Union (EU) initiative, the EIT InnoEnergy funds start-ups and companies that are active in the energy transition to decarbonisation. EIT InnoEnergy has already invested 560 million euro and holds stakes in about 300 companies, including Swedish battery cell maker Northvolt, green steel maker H2 Green Steel and lithium maker Vulcan Energy Resources.

Volkswagen did not disclose on Wednesday the value of its investment, nor the shareholding it will control in EIT InnoEnergy, a fund that also includes companies such as Schneider Electric, TotalEnergies, Engie and EDF. However, the German car group has stakes in some companies supported by EIT InnoEnergy, such as Northvolt and H2 Green Steel.