France and Germany Attempt to Form Battery Cell Consortium

Europe is fighting back against China’s dominance in the battery space by attempting to form a cross-border battery cell consortium. The coalition would include French carmaker PSA, German subsidiary Opel, and French battery maker Saft.

And just in time -- the Benchmark Mineral Intelligence megafactory tracker reports 26 battery cell plants with a planned capacity of 344.5GWh by 2021. China leads the pack with 49% of planned capacity totaling 169 GWh.

China also asserts unrivaled supremacy over the electric vehicle market, though that could change with automakers around the globe electrifying their fleets by the early 2020s.

Meanwhile, France and Germany have allocated 1.7 billion euros ($1.9 billion) for what they’re hoping becomes a counterweight to China’s battery dominance and helps keep some of those jobs in Europe.

Reuters reports that the PSA/Saft alliance wants to convert an Opel factory in the German city of Kaiserslautern into a battery cell production site.  

Read more about this planned alliance here: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-batteries/france-germany-agree-on-first-battery-cell-consortium-faz-idUSKCN1S51I0 and the rise of “Battery Megafactories” here: https://www.benchmarkminerals.com/where-is-new-lithium-ion-battery-capacity-located/