Europe's battery cell production capacity seen to grow tenfold by 2030

The capacity for battery cell production in Europe is likely to increase tenfold to up to 1.5 TWh by the end of this decade, accounting for about one-quarter of the planned global capacity, shows a study by the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research.

At least 15 European countries will become home to battery cell plants with Germany playing a key role with the largest share of almost 400 GWh, the institute said.

Europe's production capacity for batteries used for electric vehicles and energy storage in industrial applications is seen to reach 124 GWh in the course of 2022 and quadruple to more than 500 GWh by 2025, according to the research institute's estimates.

The robust growth is driven by European players such as Northvolt, Volkswagen and ACC. These three companies alone are planning to build up about a third of Europe's battery cell production, said Fraunhofer ISI's researcher Lukas Weymann.

Earlier this month, Northvolt secured financing of USD 1.1 billion (EUR 1.07bn) to back the rollout of battery cell and cathode material manufacturing in Europe. The Swedish battery company is currently developing battery capacity to fulfil USD 55 billion in orders from customers such as BMW, Fluence, Scania, Volvo Cars and Volkswagen.

The expansion will be driven not only by local companies. Non-European players such as Tesla, China's CATL as well as South Korea's LG Energy Solution and Samsung SDI also intend to establish significant production capacities on the continent.

Overall, more than 40 battery cell manufacturers have announced plans to build factories across Europe.

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