A joint venture between Total and PSA Group targets the production of batteries for one million electric vehicles (EV) per year by 2030.

Total, through its affiliate Saft, and PSA Group, with Opel, have announced their plans to combine their know-how to produce EV batteries starting in 2023. The joint-venture, named Automotive Cell Company (ACC), will be a 50-50 Saft and PSA Group joint venture for the pilot production line. Under the terms of the JV, Saft’s share in ACC will decrease to 33 percent during the commercial production phase.

The project is partitioned into phases. The first phase of the project will focus on R&D, with the setting up of a pilot plant at Saft’s facility in Nersac, in the French region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. The pilot plant represents an investment of €200 million and is expected to be operational by mid-2021.

This first phase is expected to trigger the investment decision for a large-scale production plant of 8 GWh initially, rising to 16 GWh and then to 24 GWh, in the northern Hauts-de-France region. A second plant of equal capacity is also planned in Germany in order to reach 48GWh of combined capacity by 2030. Eventually, the manufacturing capacity should reach one million batteries per year, about 10 to 15 percent of the European market. The project, supported by nearly €1.3 million in public funding from the European Union, would require a total of €5 billion in investments, Total and PSA Group said.

24.000 square meter pilot line at Saft’s Facility in Nersac (Image: Saft)

Revitalizing industry to meet climate challenges

Over the past decades, Europe has been losing ground in global manufacturing stakes. Soon after taking office as president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen expressed her intentions to address Europe’s competitiveness loss against the United States and China and to rapidly revitalize Europe’s manufacturing industry. Taking on the climate change challenge is one direction.

Under the Paris Agreement, the European Union defined a plan to cut its emissions by at least 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030 and to reach a climate-neutral economy by 2050. To realize this ambition, the European Commission recently approved a €3.2 billion support aid from member states Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Sweden for pan-European research and innovation projects in all segments of the battery value chain.

“Battery production in Europe is of strategic interest for our economy and society because of its potential in terms of clean mobility and energy, job creation, sustainability and competitiveness,” Margrethe Vestager, executive vice-president “Europe fit for the Digital Age” and commissioner in charge of competition policy, stated. “The approved aid will ensure that this important project can go ahead without unduly distorting competition.”

On a visit to Saft’s plant in Nersac, French President Emmanuel Macron reaffirmed Europe’s need to reinvigorate its manufacturing industry and his faith in the EV battery project to reconcile industry and ecology. “I am, as you are, preoccupied by the consequences of climate changes, and I am convinced that our country must be at the forefront of this transition,” Macron declared. “This EV battery project has the capacity to meet environmental challenges, to recreate industrial employments on our territories and to add strength to Europe.”

The project is expected to generate around 200 high-skilled jobs in France’s Nouvelle-Aquitaine region to develop, qualify and commercially scale up new, high-performance lithium-ion batteries, partners claimed.