Europe seeks Airbus-like alliance to boost electric car battery development ~ station of gear

Martin Saarinen 2017-10-04 09:40

The European Commission warns the continent is falling behind in battery development as EV demand grows

The European Union is seeking to create an Airbus-like consortium of vehicle and technology manufacturers to develop and build electric vehicle batteries in the future - the aim being to keep up with Asian and US markets.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Maros Sefcovic, European Commission vice-president in charge of energy said he will host a summit on October 11 for executives from car manufacturers, chemical companies and battery manufacturers to explore Airbus-like cooperation between the different sectors. The EU could support the efforts with up to 2.2 billion Euros (£1.95bn) worth of funding

Speaking to the FT, Sefcovic said that as electric car demand continues to grow, Europe cannot afford to get left behind by Asian and American battery producers, and that the region needs its own battery cell production facilities.

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While the US, China and Japan all have factories in place for building the latest lithium-ion cells and batteries, there’s not a single factory in Europe. Investment bank Goldman Sachs has previously estimated the demand for lithium-ion batteries to reach $40 billion (£35.5bn) by 2025.

Sefcovic said that Europe cannot have any “Kodak moments”, where an industry fails to keep up with the latest technology and struggles as a result. Instead, Sefcovic said he wants to see European manufacturers group together and pursue economies of scale like they did in the aerospace industry when creating Airbus.

He said: “What we need is an Airbus for batteries. In the 1960s, we had a lot of smaller companies with cutting edge but what they missed was the scale. We needed the Germans, the French and other Europeans to get together and to develop what today is a marvellous plane.”

Should European carmakers and chemical plants join forces to develop and manufacture the latest lithium-ion batteries?

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