"If AVZ end up big SC6 OTs with Ganfeng and Yibin/CATL to supply...

"If AVZ end up big SC6 OTs with Ganfeng and Yibin/CATL to supply China and a big LiSO4 OT to supply Northvolt/VW it will be a huge global Li player. Big funds will jump on board and the SP will be >$1.00 very quickly IMO."





*To Remind,

Swedish battery maker Northvolt says Europe is catching up with Asian rivals in the manufacturing of car batteries but warns that more efforts are needed to build a complete supply chain “ecosystem” in the EU.

Northvolt is quickly becoming Europe’s go-to company for home-grown batteries. In mid-July, BMW inked a €2 billion supply deal, while Volkswagen has become the main investor behind a new factory in northern Germany.

An “incredible jump”

But Europe has its own strengths, Carlsson said, including strong customer appetite for electric vehicles, and a corresponding shift in the auto industry, which is “further accelerating towards electrification”.

“The dynamics in Europe are very very strong, perhaps even stronger than China,” the Swedish entrepreneur said.

This optimism was echoed by Maroš Šefčovič, the European Commission vice-president who oversees the battery alliance.

According to him, Europe has made an “incredible jump” on battery investment since the alliance was announced in 2017.

“Today we see that we have become in two years the biggest investor in the battery sector in the world,” with Europe “investing twice as much as China has done in the last year and a half,” said Šefčovič who spoke alongside Carlsson at the same telephone briefing.

Andrew McDowell, the European Investment Bank’s vice-president responsible for economics and energy, echoed this, saying that “in terms of investment levels in Europe, we probably have caught up”.

According to him, there has been “a transformation in the level of ambition” in Europe since the battery alliance was formed in 2017.

“It’s not just about catching up anymore, it’s about Europe taking a leadership position in this industry,” McDowell said.

Nagging issues: Raw materials, and brains

Even so, Carlsson pointed to nagging issues which are slowing Northvolt’s growth.

Production facilities need to be supported by raw materials, components and suppliers, he pointed out, saying “this is where we really need to continue strengthening the European ecosystem.”

www.euractiv.com/section/energy-environment/news/europe-is-closing-the-gap-on-battery-manufacturing-northvolt-says/








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