BERLIN, Aug 25 (Reuters) -

German carmaker Porsche AG scrapped production

plans at its high-performance battery unit Cellforce, saying it

would focus on development because of slow demand for electric

vehicles and changed conditions in China and the United States.

Cellforce will be turned into an independent research and

development unit, the company said in a statement on Monday.

Some of the nearly 300 jobs at the subsidiary could

potentially move to battery unit PowerCo, said Porsche, and

Cellforce's expertise would also benefit V4Smart, the automotive

battery unit taken over from Varta ( VARGF ) earlier this year.

The company said in April it would no longer pursue plans to

expand production at Cellforce.

The carmaker had initially planned to expand production with

the construction of a "start-up factory" in the southwest German

state of Baden-Wuerttemberg in 2022 to be followed by a larger

second location.

However, "due to a lack of volume worldwide, it is not

possible to scale up its own production to the planned cost

position," said Michael Steiner, Porsche executive board member

for research and development.

(Writing by Miranda Murray

Reporting by Christina Amann

Editing by Ludwig Burger)