French oil giant Total and European automaker Opel will collaborate on electrical vehicle cell manufacturing, with a maximum potential capacity of 48 gigawatt-hours.
Total, via its energy storage company Saft, and Opel, part of France’s Groupe PSA, will kick off the arrangement with an exploratory R&D pilot plant opening next year. Based on the outcomes of that 200-strong research team, a final investment decision will be taken on an 8 gigawatt-hour plant in the north of France. That facility would be scaled up to 24 gigawatt-hours before being replicated with a sister plant of the same size in Germany by 2030.
The plans will be executed via a new joint venture called Automotive Cell Company (ACC). The total investment could exceed €5 billion ($5.5 billion), with €1.3 billion of public funding committed from both the French and German governments and the European Union.
If the project proceeds to commercial scale, Saft’s share in ACC will drop from 50 to 33 percent.
Prior to today’s announcement by Total and Opel, the Wood Mackenzie Energy Storage Service is tracking 285 gigawatt-hours of lithium-ion manufacturing either operational or under development in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The global tally currently stands at 745 gigawatt-hours of manufacturing online or planned globally.
The U.K. government has previously highlighted battery manufacturing as a priority. More details could be provided when the country’s first post-Brexit budget is introduced on March 11.
Samsung SDI is planning a €1.2 billion expansion of its existing plant in Hungary. The European Union is currently investigating the legality of state support for that investment.
Source: Greentech Media