The demand for lithium batteries from a wide variety of sectors is growing ever more rapidly. Currently, it is mainly manufacturers from China, Japan and South Korea who are meeting this demand. But there have also been increasing efforts to build large battery cell factories in Europe for some years. On the one hand, many established Asian cell manufacturers are expanding to Europe, on the other hand, a large number of newly founded European start-ups are planning investments in cell production or are already implementing them.
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As part of an accompanying measure (BEMA 2020 II) funded by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research, Fraunhofer ISI is evaluating these announcements by the various players and, on this basis, drawing up a forecast of the cell production capacities that will be created in Europe. "This rapid development is being driven to a large extent by European players such as Northvolt, VW and ACC. The three named alone have jointly announced about one third of the European cell production capacities," knows Lukas Weymann, who researches battery topics at Fraunhofer ISI and has analysed the manufacturers' statements.
Germany covers a quarter of EU cell production
The evaluations show: According to the announcements of the cell manufacturers active in Europe, production capacities of up to 124 gigawatt hours could already be reached in the course of 2022. By 2025, these are expected to quadruple to over 500 gigawatt hours. And by 2030 they will actually increase tenfold to up to 1.5 terawatt hours. This means that by the end of the decade, about a quarter of the globally announced production capacities will be created in Europe. The projects to build battery cell factories span at least 15 European countries. Germany plays a central role, as more than a quarter of the European cell production capacities will be built here, at just under 400 gigawatt hours.
In addition to two large cell factories in Sweden, Northvolt is also building a gigafactory in Heide, Germany, the construction of which is to begin next year. Even before this announcement, Northvolt was planning to build a factory with VW in Salzgitter, which VW will now build independently, as well as another factory near Valencia, Spain. According to Weymann, the locations for three more cell factories have not yet been determined, but the planned maximum production capacity of 40 gigawatt hours, which each of these five factories could achieve in the final expansion, has.
What are CATL, Tesla and LG and Samsung doing?
European carmakers Mecedes-Benz and Stellantis, along with Saft, are shareholders in Automotive Cells Company (ACC), which has announced plans to build gigafactories in Germany, France and Italy. In addition to the European cell manufacturers, non-European players such as CATL (China) and Tesla (USA) with their planned German cell factories, as well as LGES and Samsung SDI (both from South Korea) with their Eastern European factories, will also establish a large share of European cell production. In total, more than 40 cell manufacturers have announced plans to build battery factories in Europe. (nhp)
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