Triggered by the record-setting sales of electric vehicles (“EVs”) last year and the prediction that Europe will lead in EV sales this year as well, manufacturers in the region are rushing to build a supply chain for batteries from the ground up.
For years, Europe has been content to let foreign-based companies take charge of the battery market, but the recent surge in the demand for electric vehicles as well as the lessons learned from the supply chain disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic have prompted Europe to claim a piece of the pie for itself.
Manufacturing plants are being planned in France, Poland, Germany, and the United Kingdom as well as within the Nordic region. All these efforts are geared at wrestling a sizeable chunk of the battery market from China-based Contemporary Amperex Technology and LG Energy Solution based in South Korea. This is looking much like a classic transcontinental battle for dominance.
Governmental support alone totals approximately $7.3 billion while the investment plans made amount to tenfold the amount pledged by governments across the content. So far, major players in the battery sector include Tesla, Automotive Cells (in France), Volkswagen Group, Britishvolt (from the UK) and Northvolt based in Sweden. According to estimates by BloombergNEF, the efforts of these companies could result in Europe growing its share of the battery market from a paltry 7% in 2020 to a respectable 31% by the end of this decade.
Maros Sefcovic, vice president of the EU Commission superintending the EV battery drive, commented that the initiative was aimed at creating a totally new ecosystem, and he was glad that massive amounts of investment cash were pouring into the initiative.
He estimates that, according to the investment planned in 2019 alone, about $71 billion had been committed, an amount that tripled what was spent in China in the battery sector. The money in planned investments spans the entire gamut of the battery industry ranging from extracting the metals needed to assembling the batteries as well as recycling the retired ones.
With a commitment of approximately $3.05 billion, Germany is muscling its way to the top of the competition having attracted LG Energy, Tesla, CATL and other battery makers to the country. In total, 27 manufacturing facilities are planned across Europe, and these could have the capacity to churn out a minimum of 500 gigawatt hours of battery energy within this decade alone.
Why would automakers suddenly commit all those funds to making their own batteries? The race is on to make more affordable EVs, and companies that make their own batteries save money and are able to pass on those savings to their customers. Europe can therefore be said to be on its way to becoming the battery capital of the world.
While most of the attention is being directed at batteries for electric vehicles, other forms of clean energy are also attracting their own volume of investments. For example, Clean Power Capital Corp. (CSE: MOVE) (FWB: 2K6A) (OTC: MOTNF) is quietly investing in establishing a large network of hydrogen fuel stations so that motorists whose vehicles use this alternative fuel don’t lack places to fuel up in North America.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to Clean Power Capital Corp. (CSE: MOVE) (FWB: 2K6A) (OTC: MOTNF) are available in the company’s newsroom at https://ibn.fm/MOTNF
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