France aims to get its stake of the cake in the European thriving market of battery production. The continent is home for numerous leading car manufacturers worldwide who are showing big ambitions for EVs, this is an opportunity for cleantech companies and batteries’ manufacturers in particular to raise.
Renault has joined Automotive Cells Company ,the JV founded by Total and PSA earlier this year to manufacture batteries for EVs. The project received the green light from the European commission in February 2020, it aims to make batteries for 1 million vehicle per year in Europe which will represent 10 to 15% of the market by 2030.
Europeans are facing a massive competition coming from the East, in addition to the Chinese competitors, the South Korean LGI has a plant in Poland and Samsung SDI is present in Hungary.
In Northern Europe, BMW and Sweden based startup Northvolt have agreed on a $2 bn contract to supply the European market in battery cells. Northvolt has recently raised $1.6 billion in debt through a consortium of commercial banks, pension funds and public financial institutions: APG, BNP Paribas, Danske Bank, Danica Pension , Intesa Sanpaolo, ING, KfW IPEX-Bank, PFA, SEB, Siemens Bank, Société Générale , Swedbank, UniCredit , European Investment Bank (EIB), Nordic Investment Bank, Export-Import Bank of Korea and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) Asia Pacific.
France is resisting in this fast race, the French Industrial company Verkor has announced recently that it is partenring with Schneider Electric, InnoEnergyEU and Groupe IDEC to establish a Gigafactory based in South of Europe. The project aims to provide competitive, local and green cells by 2023.
The French government showed support for the project as it meets its ambitions, the facility is planned to create 2000 direct jobs and will require an initial investment of €1.3 billion.
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