The third French giga-factory will be set up in Dunkirk, with up to 1,200 jobs at stake from the first phase. The Grenoble start-up Verkor, supported by Renault, Schneider Electric and Arkema, announced on Tuesday 1er February, having chosen the northern city to set up its first giga-factory low carbon battery cells.
This very symbolic announcement for the future of the automotive industry in France was made almost simultaneously on Tuesday evening by the company, the president (Les Républicains) of the Hauts-de-France regional council, Xavier Bertrand, and the president of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron. “It is a project for which there was European competition, and which, for its first phase, involves 1,200 direct jobs and 3,000 indirect jobs”welcomed the latter dyears an interview with The voice of the North.
This is the third battery factory to set up in France, along with that of the Chinese-Japanese AESC-Envision in Renault’s Electricity division, near Douai (North), and that of Stellantis and TotalEnergies in Douvrin ( North), where production is due to begin in 2023.
“We have stopped the industrial bleeding”
While Europe is targeting 25% of global battery production by 2030 (compared to 3% in 2020), to catch up with China and protect its automotive industry, dozens of battery factory projects have been announced on the continent. The Northvolt electric battery group announced, at the end of December 2021, that it had launched production of the first “giga-factory” of a European group, in Sweden.
The establishment of Verkor in Dunkirk “makes Hauts-de-France the “battery valley”an essential segment for producing the electric cars of tomorrow on our soil”said Emmanuel Macron. “We stopped the industrial haemorrhage three years ago with reforms that no one had dared to carry out for decades. We have changed the image of France.he said.
The first delivery of batteries from the Dunkirk plant is scheduled for July 2025, with a capacity that should increase from 16 gigawatt hours (GWh) in 2025 to 50 GWh in 2030, enough to equip several hundred thousand electric vehicles each year. . The project includes batteries “low carbon and high performance”therefore for sports and high-end vehicles, such as the future electric Alpine from Renault, manufactured in Normandy.
A potential of 2,000 direct jobs
According to the Hauts-de-France region, the installation represents “a total investment of 2.5 billion euros and an eventual potential of nearly 2,000 direct jobs and 5,000 indirect jobs”. More specifically, 800 direct jobs are expected for “the first phase of the project”. AT “horizon 2028-2030”a “potential of approximately 2,000 direct jobs and 5,000 indirect jobs is announced”.
Xavier Bertrand greeted “very good news for Hauts-de-France, because it will create jobs, of course, but also because it constitutes recognition of our economic strategy”. Construction of the plant on a 150-hectare site is due to begin in 2023, after a public consultation process. Research and development will remain based in Grenoble, Verkor said.