The reindustrialization of France, announced as one of the government’s priorities, involves the automotive sector and its electrification. It is by following this ambition that France is today inaugurating its first Gigafactory near Lens. This is owned by ACC, a joint venture between TotalEnergies, Stellantis and Mercedes-Benz.
In the north of France, a symbol of the country’s deindustrialisation, four factories will see the light of day by the end of the decade.
The ACC plant located in Billy-Berclau will be followed by the project of the Sino-Japanese group AESC-Envision in Douai, whose production will be intended for Renault from the beginning of 2025. The start-up Verkor, supported by Renault, Schneider Electric and Arkema also plans to launch production at its Dunkirk plant from mid-2025, in order to supply the Renault group as well. Finally, the Taiwanese group ProLogium, specializing in “solid” batteries, has announced its establishment in Dunkirk with a production launch scheduled for the end of 2026.
Production is expected to start this summer, with ACC aiming for an annual capacity of 13 GWh by the end of 2024, which is expected to create 600 jobs. By 2030, the objective is to reach 40 GWh, or the equivalent of 800,000 batteries produced per year, and to employ 2,000 employees.
In this former mining basin, now nicknamed the “battery valley”, builders and institutions have announced their desire to train 13,000 people. According to the Automotive Platform (PFA), which brings together professionals in the sector, the four French “gigafactories” will create 20,000 jobs by 2030.
France is aiming for autonomy in battery production by 2027 to supply its automotive industry. The objective is twofold: to supplant the drop in energy demand linked to new thermal vehicles, the sale of which will be prohibited from 2035, and above all to compete with China.
Although it is in a more favorable position than other European countries, France nevertheless comes up against a major obstacle: the high cost of its energy, in comparison with China and the United States, the latter generously subsidizing their battery industry thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Another major challenge remains, that of the supply of critical metals. Lithium-ion batteries are extremely greedy in nickel, cobalt and manganese, whose production chain, from extraction to refining, is largely controlled by China. Although alternatives exist to design batteries without these materials, such as solid-state batteries or lithium-sulfur batteries, these technologies are still at an experimental stage.
Another pitfall, the CGT of the Stellantis site in Douvrin, which is near ACC and should be closed, demonstrated against the social consequences of electrification, denouncing the “social breakdown” that it induces. Despite the ambitious announcements, job creations may indeed not compensate for the tens of thousands of jobs lost in France during the accelerated transition to fully electric vehicles. The CGT condemns what it considers a “comedy of reindustrialization”, which would be to the detriment of 50,000 jobs on all automotive sites. On the side of the employers, the alarm bell is also sounded: PFA estimates that for 23,000 to 35,000 jobs created, 52,000 are threatened.