In May 30, three ministers and many elected officials inaugurated the first gigafactory of electric batteries in France, in Douvrin (Pas-de-Calais). On May 11, the President of the Republic boasted of a total of 13 billion euros already committed to the France 2030 investment plan, including part of the 800 million euros in French public subsidies for Douvrin. He also announced another gigafactory project (the fourth in total) and a new tax credit aimed at subsidizing 20 billion euros of additional investment by 2030, including a part still for the automotive sector.
Excellent news, as the ecological transition involves strengthening the strategic autonomy of industrial processes, in particular the production of batteries for the automotive transition. But for a credible industrial, ecological and social policy, conditions must be set on the use that will be made of them: to produce vehicles that are more efficient, more resource-efficient and accessible to all people who depend on the automobile on a daily basis.
Not a word has been said about the vision of future mobility offered to the French, where the car should occupy a much less central place. Will those who remain dependent on them, especially in rural areas, be able to afford the electric vehicles produced, when the new market is already out of reach for most today? How can we respond to the concerns, shared by industrialists and scientists, about the availability of materials to manufacture batteries, charging infrastructure, and even electricity for charging them? What can we say to the hundreds of thousands of workers in the thermal vehicle industry who are wondering about their future?
Reduction of the overall market necessary
The current strategy remains silent on the real issues and risks leading us into a dead end. The desirable relocation of automobile production must integrate the need for a reduction in the global market. As shown by all the work on the transition of the sector integrating the physical limits of our planet, the first challenge is to accompany this reduction in a fair way – the few thousand jobs that can be envisaged in the production of batteries will not be able to compensate for it alone. .
The continued orientation of manufacturers towards high-margin cars that are ever heavier, more powerful and over-equipped cannot be subsidized. Because it means less accessible vehicles, larger and more material-intensive batteries, and more power demanded from the electricity grid. This means less electricity to heat us, decarbonize our industrial processes – or make our bread! And this risks reinforcing the temptation to turn to solutions that are much less efficient than electricity and more useful elsewhere, such as hydrogen for industry, e-fuels for aviation, or biomass for agriculture. .
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