The European Battery Alliance (EBA) is Europe's plan to create its own competitive and sustainable battery cell manufacturing value chain. Its purpose is to ensure that Europe benefits from the technological evolution in the

Electric Vehicle An electric vehicle (EV) is a motor vehicle whose propulsion is powered fully or mostly by electricity. EVs encompass a wide range of transportation modes, including road vehicle, road and rail vehicles, electric boats and Submersible, submer ...

Market and beyond. The action plan includes cleaner and more sustainable vehicles as well as safer traffic operations across Europe.

Stakeholders

120 industrial innovation stakeholders are currently active under the EBA alliance in partnership with participant EU states and the

European Investment Bank The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the European Union's investment bank and is owned by the 27 member states. It is the largest multilateral financial institution in the world. The EIB finances and invests both through equity and debt sol ...

. This entails growth and investment potential of the battery sector across Europe and beyond.

Operations

The action plan adopted focuses on innovating and developing a sustainable and competitive battery 'ecosystem' within Europe. The primary objective is to create a manufacturing value chain with sustainable battery cells at its core in order to avoid a technological dependence from 3rd parties. According to analysts, by 2025, Europe could capture a €250 billion market. EU wide demand is forecast to demand 10 to 20 large-scale battery cell production facilities. The first planned plant, called the "Automotive Cell Co.", will be stationed at a

Groupe PSA Peugeot S.A., trading as Groupe PSA () (formerly PSA Peugeot Citroën from 1991 to 2016) was a French multinational automotive manufacturing company which produced automobiles and motorcycles under the Peugeot, Citroën, DS, Opel and Vauxhal ...

’s site in

Kaiserslautern Kaiserslautern (; ) is a town in southwest Germany, located in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate at the edge of the Palatinate Forest. The historic centre dates to the 9th century. It is from Paris, from Frankfurt am Main, 666 kilometers (414 m ...

Saft Groupe S.A. Saft is a French company involved in the design, the development and the manufacturing of Electric battery, batteries used in transport, industry and defense. Headquartered in France, it has an international presence. The company was established ...

will be taking part in the operations as this plant will be complementing another production facility located at

Hauts-de-France Hauts-de-France (; ; ), also referred to in English as Upper France, is the northernmost region of France, created by the territorial reform of French regions in 2014, from a merger of Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Picardy. Its prefecture is Lille. ...

. The two plants are to be operational by 2024, employ around 2,000 and serve up to 15% of Europe's demand.

Environmental impact

The European Union and all stakeholders involved are considering the entire life-cycle of batteries, including the environmental gains of use and the impact triggered by their production. Recycling and the recovery of materials at the end of the life cycle reduces the impact of both mining and manufacturing. emissions and hazardous substances used are lowered and the impact of mining is reduced. The EU wants to ensure recycling through the

Battery Directive The ''Directive 2006/66/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 September 2006 on batteries and accumulators and waste batteries and accumulators and repealing Directive 91/157/EEC'', commonly known as the Battery Directive, regul ...

to offset the negative side of the equation.

Economic impact

The European Commission sees batteries as a core component of the current industrial revolution. It sees the development and production of this technology as having a strategic commercial role in the transition to clean mobility and clean

Energy system An energy system is a system primarily designed to supply #Energy-services, energy-services to end user, end-users. The intent behind energy systems is to minimise energy losses to a negligible level, as well as to ensure the efficient use of ...

s. Bernstein Research stated that developing European cell capacity could cost as much as $30bn (€25bn).

History

EBA was launched in October 2017 by Vice President

Maroš Šefčovič Maroš Šefčovič (; born 24 July 1966) is a Slovak diplomat and politician serving as European Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security; Interinstitutional Relations and Transparency (2024–2029) in the Von der Leyen Commission II. Prior t ...

. On 30 september 2020, the EU launched its European Raw Materials Alliance (ERMA). It is aiming for strategic autonomy on critical raw materials. It is modelled on the European Battery Alliance and focuses on metals and rare earths which are used to build magnets for batteries and all kinds of electric and electronic devices. Part of its objectives is to allow the EU to become "almost" self-sufficient on lithium for batteries by 2025.EIT RawMaterials will manage newly launched European Raw Materials Alliance
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References

{{reflist Electric battery Battery electric vehicles