Groupe PSA and Total plan to create a joint venture dedicated to manufacturing batteries for Electric Vehicles in Europe. The two companies have also signed an agreement for the same. The JV named “Automotive Cells Company” is envisioned as a world-class player in the development and manufacture of high-performance batteries for the automotive industry from 2023.
The Broad objectives of the JV, as mentioned by the companies, are to produce batteries for electric vehicles that will be at the highest technological level in terms of energy performance, autonomy, recharging time, carbon footprint and thus respond to the challenges of the energy transition, reducing the environmental footprint of vehicles throughout the value chain and offer clean and affordable mobility to citizens.
The plan is to develop production capacity to meet the growth demand for electric vehicles in a European market– which is estimated at 400 GWh by 2030, i.e. 15 times the current market. The JV will begin with an initial capacity of 8 GWh to reach a cumulative capacity of 48 GWh by 2030.
This project has got financial support of French and German public authorities representing €1.3 billion. The whole project will mobilize an investment more than €5 billion investment.
Total, the energy company that owns advanced technology battery solutions company Saft , will contribute its expertise in R&D and industrialization. Groupe PSA, a well known automaker, will add its knowledge of the automotive market and its experience in production.
The R&D centre in Bordeaux and the pilot site in Nersac (France) have already started in order to develop the new high-performance lithium-ion technologies. At the end of this R&D phase, mass production could be launched in two “gigafactories”, in Douvrin (France) and Kaiserslautern (Germany).
