Groupe PSA and Total joint European battery manufacturing venture

04 September 2020 | David Young

With this partnership, ACC, the parties are setting up a new player in the development and manufacture of high-performance batteries for the automotive industry from 2023.

Total/Saft will contribute its expertise in R & D and industrialisation, and Groupe PSA 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, production is planned for two "gigafactories", in Douvrin (France) and Kaiserslautern (Germany).

This project aims to:

• Respond to the challenges of the energy transition by reducing the environmental footprint of vehicles throughout the value chain in a desire to offer clean and affordable mobility to citizens.
• Produce batteries for electric vehicles that will be at the highest technological level in terms of energy performance, autonomy, recharging time and carbon footprint.
• Develop production capacity, essential to accompany the growth demand for electric vehicles in a European market estimated at 400 GWh by 2030, ie 15 times the current market.
• Ensure industrial independence in Europe for the conception and manufacture of batteries, with an initial capacity of 8 GWh, reaching a cumulative capacity of 48 GWh on both sites by 2030. It will represent 1 million electric vehicles produced per year, ie more than 10% of the European market.
• Position ACC as a major competitive player in supplying electric vehicle manufacturers.

This project benefits from the financial support of French and German public authorities representing €1.3 billion. It received the European institutions agreement through an IPCEI project that testifies to the strategic importance of mobility for the energy transition. The whole project will mobilize an investment more than €5 billion investment.

Carlos Tavares, Chairman of Groupe PSA: The construction of the European battery consortium that we wished for is now a reality. I would like to pay special tribute to the commitment of the Total/Saft and Groupe PSA/Opel teams who have made this project come true. This new step is consistent with our central purpose: "to offer citizens clean, safe and affordable mobility" and gives Groupe PSA a competitive advantage in the context of growing sales of electric vehicles. ACC takes Groupe PSA further along the road to carbon neutrality".

Source: Groupe PSA