By Kate Abnett, Matthew Green and Norihiko Shirouzu
August 13 (Reuters) – European battery brands are preparing to take advantage of the large “green” stimulus packages presented from the coronavirus pandemic. Many recognize that it will be difficult to compete with the Asian giants that dominate the customer market.
While Northvolt in Sweden, and more recently Verkor in France, play a role in large-scale production, other European corporations are focusing on niche markets and new technologies that attack Chinese and South Korean corporations that mass-produce batteries for electric cars (EVs).
From Greek battery manufacturer Sunlight to start-ups like InoBat Auto in Slovakia and Swiss Innolith, corporations say the challenge of economies of scale of construction to compete head-on means that locating niches is a more likely path to success, for now.
“Having drum giants in Europe is possible,” said Lampros Bisalas, CEO of Sunlight. “We just want to run, catch up and innovate faster than everyone else.”
Sunlight’s Greek plant is the world’s largest manufacturer of lead-acid batteries for guided vehicles, forklifts and electric garage systems, and is now switching to lithium cells.
But Bisalas is addressing the electric vehicle market ruled by China’s new generation Amperex (CATL), Japan’s Panasonic and South Korean LG Chem, Samsung SDI and SK Innovation.
It focuses on the production of lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP), a type of battery suitable for forklifts, locomotives and robots that perform small responsibilities with intermediate breaks.
“These markets are billions of dollars,” Bisalas said. “We see this as a great opportunity because we’re seeing lithium-ion producers, from China, who focus on electric vehicles.”
”SOVEREIGNTY CRISIS”
Today, China is home to 80% of the world’s mobile lithium-ion production, the battery expected to boost the fast-growing electric vehicle industry, and the maximum capacity commissioned in Europe over the next five years is owned by Asian companies.
But the European Union has committed 550 billion euros ($647 billion) to climate coverage and blank technologies over the next seven years, and those plans depend on batteries to buy renewable force and force vehicles.
Researchers have already known thirteen European battery projects that may be eligible for EU aid in countries such as France, Germany, Slovakia and Poland; some are run by Asian manufacturers, such as LG Chem’s plan to expand its Krakow plant.
European electric vehicle production is expected to double by six over the next five years and EU leaders expect the battery price chain, from mining to production and recycling, to be priced at EUR 250 billion by 2025.
But some European startups admit they can’t catch up with large Asian operators at low cost.
Executive Director Marian Bocek said the European automotive industry’s reliance on imported batteries has created a “technological sovereignty crisis,” forcing brands to design cars around batteries.
That’s why you plan to customize batteries for high-performance cars that want something special.
It plans to bring online a production line of one hundred MWh (megawatts/hours) next year in Slovakia near the factories of Peugeot, Kia Motors and Jaguar Land Rover, which it believes will eventually be a 10 GWh (gigawatt hour) facility.
There, InoBat will check the battery chemistry and make prototypes tailored to the wishes of the car manufacturer.
“We’re focusing more on some kind of on-demand battery niche segment for high-functionality cars that can’t pass to LG Chems or SK Innovations of the World,” Bocek said.
COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
Analysts say the next generation of batteries deserves to last longer, recharge faster and be safer and greener than those in the market lately, giving European corporations a chance.
“That’s how Europe can design competitive merit over China,” said Mitalee Gupta, an energy workshop analyst at Wood Mackenzie. “It’s going to be competitive pretty quickly.”
Swiss battery generation company Innolith, meanwhile, is a credit to new technologies.
The company, which bought high-level assets from US battery manufacturer Alevo after its 2017 bankruptcy, said its laboratories in Germany would have prototypes this year for a NMC 811 mobile that will supply up to 315 Wh/kg (watt-hours consistent with kg).
NMC 811 cells involve less cobalt than maximum classic EV batteries, meaning they have the ability to supply more strength and less expensive components.
“We simply take the same generation that is used, for example, in China or South Korea and copy and paste,” said Director-General Konstantin Solodovnikov.
In Austria, battery generation company Kreisel Electric said it had authorized its NMC 811 generation to a battery producer based in Europe, which it refused to name. You have already authorized your generation to the Vietnamese manufacturer of VE VinFast.
Kreisel stated that it uses a liquid immersion cooling formula to solve the hazards of lithium-ion cell-related chimneys in giant commercial applications, giving it credit to its competitors.
‘EXTREMELY AWESOME’
But as European corporations seek tactics in the market, their Asian rivals are the building capacity on the continent.
The first European SK Innovation and CATL plants are under structure, while LG Chem already manufactures batteries in Poland and Samsung has a factory in Hungary.
“We can bring our benefits to Europe in terms of cost, product quality and service,” said Susan Zeng, co-chair of CATL’s European division, which plans to start production in Germany next year.
For now, Northvolt is the only European startup that happens to have the scale to take on the Asian giants in its garden, and its first factory has yet to have production.
Northvolt needs 25% of the European battery market in a decade, a target it says will require 150 GWh of production, more than 3 times the existing lithium-ion capacity on the continent.
Last month it raised $1.6 billion in debt financing, more than $1 billion from lenders, Volkswagen and Goldman Sachs, the world’s largest automaker.
Northvolt’s first 40GWh plant is expected to open in Sweden next year. A joint venture with Volkswagen in Germany will be held in 2024 with a prospective capacity of 24 GWh and Northvolt has already signed agreements to sell a production of thirteen billion euros.
“In this market, you have to offer a stopover,” said Emma Nehrenheim, environmental director.
Julian Jansen, head of energy workshop studies at IHS Markit, said Northvolt’s launch is incredibly impressive. “They’re doing it at a rate that probably surprised a lot of people and no one else could.”
Verkor, a new French company whose sponsors come with electric appliance company Schneider Electric, said Northvolt had demonstrated that European companies can grow to compete with classic competitors.
While the allocation was conceived before the pandemic, Lemaignan said the post-EU pandemic “green” recovery plan accelerates its plans.
“It pushes us even stronger and faster, because that is precisely what we want to develop now in Europe.”
(Information through Kate Abnett, Matthew Green, Norihiko Shirouzu; Additional information through Nina Chestney; Edited through David Clarke)
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