2023-05-12 06:13:05
And four! The Hauts-de-France region is preparing to welcome its fourth “gigafactory” in Dunkirk, an XXL factory, intended to produce batteries for electric vehicles. It is the Head of State Emmanuel Macron, traveling to this northern city on Friday May 12, in the midst of a communication sequence on reindustrialization, who must formalize this project led by the Taiwanese Prologium. The manufacturer is expected to invest 5.2 billion euros in this new site by 2030. This will eventually generate 3,000 direct jobs.
Four projects for a single territory
The plant should go into production at the end of 2026. Shortly after that of the French start-up Verkor, also based in Dunkirk, and which should produce from 2025 batteries intended for three quarters (i.e. the equivalent of 12 gigawatts per year) to high-end Renault and Alpine vehicles.
Still in the North, the diamond-shaped group has entered into a partnership with Envision AESC: it has thus ceded a third of its Douai site to it – which on May 9 has definitively turned the page on thermal energy – so that this Chinese industrialist can build a mega -factory capable of supplying the production lines of the Mégane E-tech and the future electric Scenics and R5s.
Finally, the last project, the most advanced, that of Automotive Cells Company (ACC) in Billy-Berclau (Pas-de-Calais). This very young company, controlled by Stellantis (born from the merger of PSA and FiatChrysler), Mercedes-Benz and Saft (a subsidiary of TotalEnergies), will inaugurate its factory, coming out of the ground at full speed, on May 30, possibly in the presence of Emanuel Macron.
The assets of Dunkirk
It is actually a whole ecosystem of the electric battery which is being set up in Hauts-de-France and which Prologium intends to take advantage of. The Dunkirk site, in particular, does not lack assets, as underlined by Patrice Vergriete, mayor (various left) of the city and president of the urban community.
“Our port area, which will house the two gigafactories, has developed land that allows us to transport raw materials by sea. Heat from the ArcelorMittal plant will be used to produce Verkor’s batteries. Investors will also benefit from the proximity of the Gravelines power plant, which is to house two of the future EPR2s, and our offshore wind farm project,” lists the elected official, who also intends to support the recycling of used batteries.
In this new landscape, Prologium, also a partner of Mercedes-Benz, could occupy a special place. Because unlike its three neighbors, which will first produce “classic” lithium-ion batteries, its mega-factory will immediately rely on another technology, presented as a breakthrough: the all-solid battery. The difference ? The lithium ions move from one electrode to another by no longer borrowing a liquid but a solid compound, ceramic.
The advantages of the solid battery
The benefits are multiple. Even brought to high temperatures, this solid electrolyte is not flammable, unlike its liquid equivalent. “In addition, the solid-state battery has better energy density, boasts a source familiar with the matter. Recharging does not take longer than filling up with a thermal car. And the autonomy is much better than that of conventional electric batteries. »
A race is underway between these four unique gigafactories located on French soil. That said, puts another player in the sector into perspective, the needs are expected to be so high that there could be room for each of them. “These four factories could eventually produce two and a half million batteries per year, i.e. a quarter of the European demand expected for 2030.”
A matter of sovereignty
With these four projects, France is in any case entering international competition, alongside other European countries such as Hungary, Spain, Sweden and even Germany, which has a dozen projects. For Europe, which has chosen to ban the marketing of new thermal vehicles from 2035, the issue arises in terms of sovereignty, while know-how in the field of batteries remains very largely Asian. This challenge is all the greater since the battery constitutes on average a third of the value of an electric vehicle.
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The government will promote made in Europe by adapting the ecological bonus
France “will be the first European country to reform the criteria for allocating the automotive bonus in order to support productions of European origin”, in “taking into account the carbon footprint of batteries”.
This objective will be included in the Green Industry bill, which will be presented on Tuesday May 16, President Emmanuel Macron announced Thursday May 11 by presenting a plan for the reindustrialization of France.
The idea would be to take into account in particular the energy used for the production of electric vehicles and batteries, which would exclude vehicles manufactured in China, whose electricity production is 70% of fossil origin.
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