The French and the Germans are in the early stages of designing their biggest megafactory that will push Europe's 5 billion-euro attempt at rivaling the production of Tesla Inc. and China to supply batteries for electric vehicles.
Plans for Germany's largest electric vehicle battery plant have been unveiled after car company Opel said it will invest 2 billion euros for the undertaking, energy officials announced on Friday.
The disclosure made by officials of Germany's Economy and Energy Ministry highlights the resolve of European countries to be at par with their Asian competitors that control the manufacture of batteries. Battery cells and other related electronic parts comprise more than 50 percent of the market value of the world's electric vehicles.
The factory -- to be named Automotive Cell Company -- that Germany and France are planning to build at the Groupe PSA-Opel area in Kaiserslautern will include Total SA's Saft Groupe. The facility will have a price tag of around 2 billion euros and will be a significant addition to an existing French factory located in the Hauts de France region.
Opel, which is part of France's Group PSA, is looking to manufacture up to 500,000 electric vehicle battery units a year starting 2024, company executives said.
In a statement on Friday from Berlin, Energy Minister Peter Altmaier said the two countries want to build the "best and most sustainable batteries" in the European region.
The official stated that he is convinced that battery cells manufactured in Kaiserslautern "will set new standards in their carbon footprint."
With support from the European Commission, Germany and France proposed subsidies to get the nod of regulators who initially opposed the idea of an electric battery facility rising in the region, especially that skeptics were not comfortable about an investment in the technology.
While German automakers like BMW and Volkswagen AG get a huge slice of the manufacturing pie in Europe, they have given their Asian rivals more dominion on battery-making.
In December last year, the European Commission granted a 3.2 billion-euro government funding by seven member nations to create a Pan-European research and development venture in all sectors of the battery value chain. The Kaiserslautern facility stands to get 1.3 billion euros in government support.
Meanwhile, Tesla registrations in Germany have risen around 168 percent last month, aided by robust demand for the Model 3. Total car approvals in Germany for January reached 246,300, or around 7.4 percent lower than January last year, a report by the country's Federal Transport Authority, revealed.
