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Electric car: Hauts-de-France, future Silicon Valley of batteries

2021-06-27T13:45:22.643Z


Chinese company Envision will invest 2 billion euros to open a battery factory in Douai (North), inaugurated by Emmanuel Mac


The slag heaps, vestiges of the golden age of the mine, are they on the verge of being replaced by a new symbol, and the promise of economic tomorrows which sing?

Battery factories for electric vehicles, the new Alpha and Omega in the automotive industry, are growing in Hauts-de-France like mushrooms.

This Monday, June 28, Emmanuel Macron will travel to Douai (North), at Renault, to announce the project of the Chinese company Envision, as part of the 4th Choose France summit which will bring together major foreign bosses at the end of the day in Versailles. .

This investment of 2 billion euros will be carried out on the manufacturer's site. Work will begin in 2022 and will last until 2024. What's the key? 1,000 job creations, and even up to 2,500 by 2030. Cocorico at the Élysée! "The president wishes to illustrate the strong attractiveness of France, capable of attracting a major project like this one", underlines an adviser.

But Renault is also congratulating itself.

This investment is coordinated with “ElectriCity”, the new electric vehicle production center in the region, which brings together the sites of Douai, Maubeuge (Nord) and Ruitz (Pas-de-Calais).

As it stands, the three factories represent 5,000 jobs.

As part of “ElectriCity”, the manufacturer has already announced that “700 additional jobs will be created”.

In Douai, the electric Mégane and the future R5, in Maubeuge, the Kangoo, and in Ruitz the gearboxes.

The objective: to get 400,000 electric vehicles off the assembly lines per year by 2025.

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For the diamond brand, the stakes are high.

“ElectriCity” and Envision sparkle the hope of a real revival for industrial sites in the North, while Douai, which today produces the Espace, the Scenic and the Talisman, “is the factory of Renault vehicles which don't work, ”sighs a manager.

The North site, which is currently running at 30% of its capacity, must increase to 70%, and even more after the installation of Envision.

From the region of factories that close to that of gigafactory

Hauts-de-France, future “automotive valley” (automotive valley, allusion to Silicon Valley, the center of high-tech industries in California)?

The Douai plant is the second major battery production project in the region, after that of the Automotive Cells Company (ACC), a joint venture between Stellantis and Total-Saft, which plans to set up a plant in Douvrin (Pas-de- Calais).

Supported by the State and the communities, the project is progressing quickly.

"We are at the stage of obtaining the building permit", underlines Matthieu Hubert, spokesperson for ACC.

The construction of "block 1" of the plant is scheduled for early 2022, for the first batteries at the beginning of 2023. In the long term?

Four blocks, or 2,000 jobs by 2030. This gigafactory will then produce 350,000 to 500,000 batteries per year.

But that's not all.

A third project is in the works, since Renault plans to take stakes in the start-up Verkor.

This Grenoble-based company is developing a new high-performance battery technology, which the manufacturer would use for its high-end vehicles.

Having acquired a stake, Renault would co-finance R&D and then launch, with other partners, a latest generation battery factory.

From 2026, if all goes well.

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The Hauts-de-France, once again, appears in a good position on the list of candidate territories, strong of their establishment in the heart of the Old Continent, close to Germany and the Scandinavian countries, two very advanced countries both in terms of production than sales of electric vehicles.

"This is the region that will be at the forefront of automotive batteries," recently welcomed Xavier Bertrand (ex-LR), its president, candidate for re-election and potential rival of Emmanuel Macron.

After the Bridgestone “tragedy” in Béthune (Pas-de-Calais), “the region of factories that are closing becomes the region of gigafactory that opens”, enthuses even a CGT trade unionist, reached by telephone.

Envision, "the wolf in the sheepfold"?

Two gigafactory soon - maybe three - and so much good news. These sites indeed seem essential, because batteries represent 35% of the price of an electric car. Yes, but… “Macron brags with Envision, cowardly, bitter, a senior official of the Ministry of the Economy. The problem is that the same public policies that encourage the attractiveness of the French have funded ACC, our French battery sector, on the grounds that we could not depend on the Chinese on such a strategic issue. Envision on the Renault site in Douai is the wolf in the sheepfold. The Chinese will keep their hands on techno completely and will find a royal opportunity to bite into the electric cake in Europe. "

The other option, for Renault, would have been to acquire a stake in ACC. Officially, it is still on the table. "Relations are not broken," insists both at Renault and at ACC. Unofficially ... hope is slim, "because Renault has no desire to work with Stellantis at all," says an expert close to the matter. The two national champions prefer to play their score in parallel. At the risk that Chinese competition will profit from false notes?

Source: leparis

All business articles on 2021-06-27

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