An ambitious project
for the manufacture of electric
batteries for the automotive
industry
PSA/Opel and Total/Saft have created Automotive Cells Company (ACC), a major world player in battery production for the automotive industry in Europe.
This project aims to:
- Respond to the challenges of the energy transition by reducing the environmental footprint of vehicles throughout the value chain.
- Produce batteries for electric vehicles that will be at the highest technological level in terms of energy performance, autonomy, recharging time and carbon footprint.
- Develop production capacity, essential to accompany the growth demand for electric vehicles in a European market estimated at 400 GWh by 2030, i.e. 15 times the
current market.
- Ensure industrial independence in Europe for the conception and manufacture of batteries, with an initial capacity of 8 GWh, reaching a cumulative capacity of 48 GWhon
both sites (Douvrin/Billy-Berclau in France and Kaiserslautern in Germany) by 2030. It will represent 1 million electric vehicles produced per year, i.e. more than 10% of the European market.
- Position ACC as a major competitive player in supplying electric vehicle manufacturers.
This project benefits from the financial support of French and German public authorities representing €1.3 billion. The whole project will mobilize an investment of more than €5 billion. The R&D center in Bordeaux and the pilot site in Nersac
in France have already started in order to develop the new high-performance lithium-ion cell technologies. At the end of this R&D phase, mass production could be launched in two “Gigafactories”, in Douvrin (France) and Kaiserslautern (Germany).
