Opel is promoting the Joint Venture Automotive Cell Company (ACC) for the production of electric car battery cells along with its parent company PSA and French subsidiary Total Saft. The schedule announced in February for the Franco-German project has already been confirmed.
As planned, ACC will begin battery production in 2023 and will already produce eight million kilowatt-hour (kWh) battery cells next year. This was announced by ACC manager Jean-Baptiste Pernot at an online event hosted by the Federal Ministry of Economy, which was reported by industry portal Energate Messenger. The goal is for the capacity to reach 48 million kWh by 2030. This will be achieved with two large plants, the so-called gigafactors - one in Germany (Kaiserslautern) and France (Douvrin).
The Federal Ministry of Economy announced in February that the project should create up to 2,000 new jobs in Germany. In France, in addition to the plant in Douvrin, ACC plans to include two other areas: a research and development center in Bordeaux and a pilot area in Nersac, both of which, according to Energate, have already started operating. They want to produce high-quality, durable and affordable batteries for electronic mobility, Pernot said. The products are currently still very expensive in the market.
Pernot stressed the focus on sustainability. ACC will supply its batteries, among others, with a low CO2 footprint. 60 kilograms of the target CO2 equivalent per kWh is 25 to 35 percent less than the current standard. To this end, they rely on efficient factories and the use of renewable energy. Batteries are also designed for easier recycling and the goal is to disperse with controversial raw materials like cobalt.
In the future, the goal is to reduce Europe 's dependence on electric car batteries, Pernot said. Battery cells are currently mainly supplied by companies in Asia, as German carmakers - with the exception of VW - and their local suppliers have not yet given priority in this area. According to Energate, ACC also wants to develop new generations of batteries, including solid state batteries. As a "Significant European Common Interest Project" (IPCEI), the company receives state funding for this, with only Germany and France wishing to contribute 1.3 billion euros. According to the Federal Ministry of Economy, the total volume of investments is almost five billion euros. About two billion of these are planned for the Kaiserslautern location.
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