While Europe is rapidly catching up with China on investments into batteries for electric cars, it is still lagging behind when it comes to securing supplies of the critical raw materials that are needed to produce them.
Since the launch of the “European battery alliance” in 2017, the EU has made a leap forward in its quest to develop a full battery manufacturing value chain.
Investments in the EU battery sector reached €60 billion last year, while China invested only €17 billion, EU commissioner Maroš Šefčovič told EURACTIV in a recent interview. This year, Europe has so far invested €25 billion – again twice as much as China, he noted.
“In terms of investment levels in Europe, we probably have caught up,” says Andrew McDowell, the European Investment Bank’s vice-president responsible for economics and energy. According to him, there has been “a transformation in the level of ambition” in Europe since the battery alliance was launched in 2017.
“It’s not just about catching up anymore, it’s about Europe taking a leadership position in this industry,” McDowell told reporters during an online briefing in late August.
For the rest of this article: https://www.euractiv.com/section/energy-environment/news/raw-materials-the-missing-link-in-europes-drive-for-batteries/