The fourth battery factory will be established in France. This was announced last week by the Taiwanese company ProLogium, which intends to make France “the first land for the mass production of batteries of the new generation”called “solid”, more stable and more powerful than the previous ones.

Gilles Norman, Vice President of International Development of the ProLogium Group, stated that “There are many reasons to establish in France”. This comes after President Emmanuel Macron visited Dunkirk last Friday to highlight reindustrialization of the regionin particular, several battery factories will be established over the next few years.

The fourth battery factory in France

In general, ProLogium plans to invest 5.2 billion euros in Dunkirk by 2030 to reach an annual production capacity of 48 GWh, enough to supply several hundred thousand cars. The group hopes to start production in late 2026 and increase capacity over several years, thus creating 3,000 factory jobs and 12,000 indirect jobs on site.

According to Gilles Norman, the Taiwanese company wanted access “carbon-free electricity”and not only in Dunkirk” nuclear power is available, but so is the presence of offshore wind turbines”. He is happy to see a real ecosystem for batteries developing in the north of France, where three other “gigafactory” projects have already been announced: in Douvrin (which is scheduled to open at the end of May), in Douai and Dunkirk with French startup Verkor.

This implementation will achieve ProLogium “critical mass”, facilitating the installation of material suppliers. Indeed, current lithium batteries are very greedy for metals such as lithium, graphite or cobalt, the supply chain of which is largely controlled by China.

Gilles Norman also emphasizes “the importance of proximity to customers”as many EV factories are located in Northern Europe and Dunkirk is very well connected by rail, road and a deep sea port, making it easy to import and export products.

What is a so-called “solid” battery?

Solid-state batteries, or solid-state batteries, are a technology that will help democratize electric vehicles in the coming years. There are many advantages: they provide greater autonomy, and their service life can exceed 15 yearswhich will allow using an electric car longer than now.

Cooldown times have also been greatly improved: some solid state batteries can actually be charged to 80% in just a few minutes, which significantly reduces idle time at the charging station during long journeys. Solid-state batteries also have the environmental advantage of containing fewer heavy metals and limiting the risk of fire.