Battery production in Europe is growing rapidly

European manufacturers want to increase production capacities at least tenfold over the next ten years. German car manufacturers are also planning cell production.

The supply monopoly for lithium-ion batteries is still in Asia. Significantly five companies from LG to Panasonic supply more than 90 percent of the world market. However, given the increasing demand for electric cars, Europe is trying to catch up. New production capacities for battery cells are emerging here in greater numbers than anywhere else. If the plans work, the share of Europeans in global cell production will have grown from six percent to 25 percent over the next ten years.

But even these plans come thick and fast. If a study by the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research at the beginning of the year assumed that batteries would be manufactured in Europe with a total capacity of up to 600 gigawatt hours by 2030 (half by Asian manufacturers, by the way), this forecast proves to be true with Tesla's recent announcement being too low. The US automaker wants to build the world's largest cell factory in Grünheide. Planned production capacity there: 250 gigawatt hours.

But there is also something going on with the competition. For example, the VW Group has allied itself with the young Swedish battery developer Northvolt. A battery cell factory for lithium-ion batteries is to be built in the Group's former main engine plant in Salzgitter by 2023. A production capacity of 24 gigawatt hours is currently planned.

The French PSA group (Citroen / Peugeot) used its national connections to set up cell production at the subsidiary Opel with the Paris-based battery manufacturer Saft, a Total subsidiary. At the Kaiserslautern plant, where mainly engines and body parts are manufactured, lithium-ion cells with a capacity of 24 gigawatt hours are to be produced annually from 2023. 

The German company Varta, which sees itself as a technology leader in miniature batteries, also wants to get involved in the field of e-mobility and equip electric cars in the future. Exact plans are not yet known. What we know: The development of the next generation of lithium-ion cells at Varta is funded by the federal government and the states of Baden and Bavaria with around 300 million euros.

In addition, the Chinese battery manufacturers SVolt Energy and CATL are setting up their own plants in Germany. CATL, China's number one when it comes to lithium-ion batteries, will have a 24-gigawatt-hour production facility in Erfurt in the former halls of the insolvent Solarworld by 2022. At SVolt the capacity should also be 24 gigawatt hours.