It’s official, France is finally opening its very first battery factory for electric cars (also called gigafactory), this Tuesday, May 30. Located near Lens, in the North, it will be responsible for producing accumulators for the ACC company. Enough to make the manufacture of electric cars cleaner than ever.
We’ve been hearing about the creation ofan industrial battery production sector in France. It is indeed one of the workhorses of Emmanuel Macron, who has wanted to see a plant of this type grow on the territory since the beginning of his mandate. It is now done.
A great first
Indeed, the French press agency AFP, relayed by the Savoirs des Energies website announces that the very first French battery factory is starting production today. It is located in the north of the country, and more precisely in the vicinity of Lens. She belongs to the company ACC (Automotive Cell Company)a young company founded in 2020.
It was actually created jointly by Stellantis, TotalEnergies and Mercedes-Benz, all of which have an equal stake. It is therefore the very first company to create a battery factory on French soil. A real “gigafactory”, which displays impressive dimensions of 640 meters long and 100 meters wide according to Var-Morning.
If the inauguration is scheduled for the day, we will have to wait until this summer for production to start. Then, the marketing of the first batteries manufactured on these lines will begin by the end of the year. No specific date has yet been announced. It is indeed not excluded that some adjustments are still to be made in order to refine the industrialization.
By 2024, this plant should produce no less than 13 GWh per year. A figure which should then increase to 40 GWh annually from 2030, which is equivalent to around 800,000 batteries manufactured. From 600 employees, the factory should increase to 2,000 employees at the same time.
Several projects
But, as you can imagine, the company is obviously not the only one interested in setting up a factory in France. It’s also the case of the Sino-Japanese group AESC-Envisionwhich should also produce batteries in Douai, in the North, from 2025. These will then be intended for Renault brand vehicles, including probably the future R5 E-Tech which will also arrive on this date.
We can also cite the Grenoble start-up Verkor, in partnership with Arkema, Schneider Electric and Renault, which will launch production the same year, again for the manufacturer with the diamond. But that’s not all, because another company, of Taiwanese origin, is also interested in our country. This is ProLogium, which has already confirmed its desire to set up a factory here.
This should produce solid batteries from 2026. A promising announcement, because this technology has many advantages. In particular, it offers greater density as well as increased autonomy. But it is still expensive to produce For now. It could also be that Elon Musk is considering the creation of a factory in the territory, while he promises massive investments in France.
France wants to reduce its dependence on China and plans to be self-sufficient in terms of battery production by 2027. Enough to make electric cars cleaner, because the manufacture of accumulators in Europe is much cleaner than in the Middle Kingdom, thanks to the low-carbon energy mix. Eventually, the Élysée even wants to be able to export batteries around the world.
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