The next electric car battery champion could be European, rivalling giant Chinese supplier CATL

The transcontinental drive is fuelled by plans for 27 electric vehicle battery-producing sites across the region this decade

Sales of EVs in Europe more than doubled last year to about 1.3 million units, topping China for the first time

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Workers check products at Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd, the world’s biggest maker of electric vehicle batteries, at the company’s factory in Ningde, southeast China’s Fujian province. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 2:57pm, 5 Apr 2021Updated: 3:02pm, 5 Apr 2021

With Europe expected to lead the world in electric car sales for a second straight year, an epic rush to build a battery supply chain from scratch is playing out across the continent.

After years of ceding the electric vehicle (EV) battery business to foreign companies, Europe wants in. Prospective manufacturers are popping up in the Nordic region, Germany, France, the UK and Poland in a transcontinental competition to chip away at the dominance of China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd (CATL) and South Korea’s LG Energy Solution.

Fuelled by state support of at least 6.1 billion euros (US$7.3 billion) and investment plans totalling 10 times that in just one year, the race is on for a regional champion to emerge. The contestants include start-ups Northvolt in Sweden, Britishvolt and France’s Automotive Cells Co, and powerhouses Tesla and Volkswagen. BloombergNEF estimates the continent could see its share of global battery production rise to 31 per cent by 2030 from just 7 per cent last year.

“We’re creating a new industry in Europe; we’re creating a completely new ecosystem,” Maros Sefcovic, the European Commission vice-president overseeing the battery initiative, said in an interview. “The investments are really pouring in.”

A rechargeable lithium-ion battery for Volkswagen’s ID.3 electric car is seen at the company’s factory in Zwickau, Germany, on February 25, 2020. Photo: Agence France-Presse

Sefcovic estimated the planned investments just for 2019 to be about 60 billion euros (US$71 billion), triple that being spent in China. Those eye-watering totals cover the entire supply chain, from materials and cells to assembly and recycling.