European automotive industry continues to invest in battery production

The automotive industry is significant for the European economy. It employs 13,8 million people (6,1% of total EU employment) and manufactures more than 20% of the global car production. See the Automotive Industry Pocket Guide.

Building a strong battery industry domestically is therefore fundamental to maintain the competitiveness of Europe’s automotive industry. It is even more important today as we see EVs’ market shares ramping up very fast.

Today, batteries are indeed primarily used in the automotive industry. And it will remain so for many years. In addition, they represent a large part of the value of an electric vehicle (EV). To this extend, it is essential that the European automotive industry keeps on investing in the transformation to sustain its position. We already witness promising signs that it does benefit from it, and could very well take the lead in just a few years.

But for this to happen, further investing in production facilities and partnerships in Europe is imperative. The recent announcement from Volkswagen is a perfect example, and particularly important in such uncertain time induced by Covid-19.