Electric vehicles are booming in Europe, even if the growth of electric vehicle sales is slowing, especially due to the difficult economic situation. In related sectors, we continue to develop, as evidenced by the development of factories for the production of batteries to power these famous electric vehicles. This is reported by Acea, the European manufacturers’ association, which details the position and number of battery manufacturing plants in Europe.

Note, however, that these factories do not all specialize in lithium batteriessome produce low-voltage batteries, while others focus on related processes, and still others focus on the so-called batteries of the future, namely solid-state batteries.

Almost 40 factories for the production of electric batteries in the EU

The report states that there are 322 plants related to the automotive world in Europe, which is 21 plants more than three years ago. Among them, within the European Union, there are 38 factories specializing in the production of batteries. If we also include Russia (1), Turkey (1) and Great Britain (2), the total number of factories increases to 42.
Within the EU, battery production plants are located in 17 member states. The leader, not surprisingly, is Germany, which has always been the locomotive of the entire European industry in terms of European automobile construction and which alone has no less than 12 plants. It is followed by France, especially thanks to Renault and Stellantis, and Spain, which benefits from the tie-up between Seat and the Volkswagen group.
However, we note that, as mentioned above, these are not necessarily all gigafactories within the term, that is, they only produce batteries for electric vehicles. Some of them produce small batteries alongside other larger production lines.

Number of battery factories in each country

• Germany: 12
• France: 5
• Spain: 3
• Belgium: 2
• Finland: 2
• Italy: 2
• Poland: 2
• Slovakia: 2
• Austria: 1
• Croatia: 1
• The Netherlands: 1
• Czech Republic: 1
• Romania: 1
• Slovenia: 1
• Sweden: 1
• Hungary: 1

Battery plants in France

In France, the most famous is the one installed in the north of the country, more precisely in the vicinity of Lens. It is owned by ACC (Automotive Cell Company), a young company founded in 2020. In fact, it was jointly created by Stellantis, TotalEnergies and Mercedes-Benz, which have equal shares. By 2024, this plant should produce about 13 GWh per year, and then 40 GWh annually from 2030, which equates to approximately 800,000 batteries manufactured. From 600 employees, the factory should increase to 2,000 employees by the same deadline.
For others listed by ACEA, these are rather manufacturing factories where low-voltage batteries are currently produced. They are produced, for example, at the Renault plant in Maubege (59), at Sevelnord (Stellantis) in Orden (59), at the Bolloré plant located in Erge-Haberik (29) and at the Automotive Cells Company (Stellantis and TotalEnergies). in Nersak (16).
For the biggest factories, these are still ongoing projects, notably with the Sino-Japanese group AESC-Envision, which is also due to produce batteries in Douai, in the north, from 2025. Then they will be assigned to Renault cars.
We can also mention the Grenoble start-up Verkor in partnership with Arkema, Schneider Electric and Renault, which will launch its production again for the diamond producer in the same year.

Another company, of Taiwanese origin, is also interested in our France with ProLogium, which has already confirmed its desire to set up a factory here.