PICTURE OF THE WEEK : Groupe PSA & TOTAL create Automotive Cells Company – JV dedicated to European battery manufacturing

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Groupe PSA/Opel and TOTAL/SAFT have signed an agreement for the creation of the joint venture Automotive Cells Company (ACC). With this partnership, the parties are setting up a world-class 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 to be launched in 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, i.e. 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, i.e. 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.