Europe’s battery capacity to reach 1,000GWh by 2025
By Jon Stibbs
Published: Friday, 01 November 2019
Demand for lithium and cobalt will drive upward on a projected doubling in European battery output over the 10 years to 2025, but sustainability will be a major factor.
Battery production capacity in Europe will increase to at
least 1,000GWh by 2025 from 440GWh in 2015, according to Gert
Meylemans, Eurobat senior communications manager, speaking at
Fastmarkets’ Battery Minerals Europe 2019
conference in Amsterdam, September 26-27.
This projected increase will drive considerable
growth in demand for raw materials, such as cobalt and
lithium.
A key factor in ensuring the development of the
market, in the view of the European Commission, will be
"securing a sustainable supply of raw materials," Eurobat
said.
Annual turnover in the European batteries industry
is forecast to soar to more than $150 billion from $65 billion
in the 10 years to 2025, the group added.
This rapid escalation will see lithium-ion
batteries overtake lead-acid batteries in terms of value for
the first time. But lead-acid batteries will retain their
traditional position as the principal source of battery
capacity.
"Lead-acid technology will still have the highest
market share and will stay dominant for the next 10 years,"
Meylemans said.
New cell manufacturing plants in Europe are being
announced every month, Nicolo Campagnol, senior knowledge
analyst at McKinsey & Company, told the conference.
Central Europe is emerging as a major location for
the batteries sector because of low labor costs and its
proximity to car-producing countries such as Germany.
Norway also has a strong batteries sector because
it can draw on inexpensive hydro-electric power, which is
useful because battery production is energy-intensive.
Norway is also an outlier in Europe in terms of
its high rate of adoption of electric vehicles.