In the race to dominate the electric car battery world, China is way ahead of Europe right now. In fact, China makes so many of the world’s electric car batteries that even if every plan for every ‘gigafactory’ to make batteries in Europe, the US, and elsewhere went ahead as planned, China would still have a 2:1 advantage.
Still coal-heavy
This presents an environmental issue. While China has made big inroads in developing renewable energy for its national grid, at least 1.04 terrawatts still comes from coal (according to Reuters), which means that making batteries in China causes a lot of CO2 emissions.
It’s a well-known fact that making electric car batteries is a CO2-intensive process, and it’s why electric cars are actually in carbon debit when they leave the factory and only start to make that up in comparison to combustion-engined models as they are driven. According to research by eco-think-tank Transport & Environment (T&E), because of China’s coal dependence, it means that for every kWh of battery capacity, there is an associated 120kg of CO2 emissions.
More efficient
However, if we could make those batteries in Europe and use largely renewable energy to do so, that carbon bill could be slashed to little more than 40kg of CO2 per kWh, which would be at least 60 per cent more efficient than Chinese-made batteries. Even if those notional European batteries were made with the current average European electricity grid emissions values, they would still be 37 per cent better off, in CO2 terms, than those made in China.
However, there’s a problem - much of the planned European battery manufacturing capacity is currently ‘uncertain’ and there have been some major hiccups in battery factory rollout in recent years (such as the failure of the Britishvolt plans in the UK).
Julia Poliscanova, senior director for vehicles and emobility supply chains at T&E, said: “Batteries, and metals that go into them, are the new oil. European leaders will need laser sharp focus and joined-up thinking to reap their climate and industrial benefits. Strong sustainability requirements, such as the upcoming battery carbon footprint rules, can reward local clean manufacturing. Crucially, Europe needs better instruments under the European Investment Bank and EU Battery Fund to support gigafactory investments.”
Good news and bad news
The good news is that in France, ACC started production in Pas-de-Calais last year while plants by Verkor in Dunkirk and Northvolt in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, are going ahead thanks to generous government subsidies. However, Finland, the UK, Norway and Spain have the most production capacity at medium or high risk due to question marks over projects by the Finnish Minerals Group, West Midlands Gigafactory, Freyr and InoBat. T&E called on lawmakers to help lock in investments by doubling down on EU electric car policies, enforcing strong battery sustainability requirements that reward local manufacturing, and beefing up EU-level funding.
Julia Poliscanova said: “The battery race between China, Europe and the US is intensifying. While some battery investments that were at risk of being lured away by US subsidies have been saved since last year, close to half of planned production is still up for grabs. The EU needs to end any uncertainty over its engine phase-out and set corporate EV targets to assure gigafactory investors that they will have a guaranteed market for their product.”