By Marcus Williams2021-04-23T10:09:00+01:00
To meet ambitious goals to cut vehicle emissions in Europe, carmakers are focusing all their efforts on increasing the number of battery electric vehicles (EVs) they make and sell. There were more than 1m EVs and plug-in hybrid EVs (PHEVs) sold in Europe last year but by 2030 that number is expected to hit 5m in annual sales. That will put a big demand on lithium-ion battery production as carmakers seek to localise supply.
According to figures from Ultima Media’s Automotive intelligence unit, presented at the Automotive Logistics and Supply Chain Europe Live conference, last year European battery production capacity stood at 60GWh per year, a 13% share of global battery capacity. By 2030 that will need to grow to 950GWh, a 16-fold increase that will mean Europe then holds a 33% share of global battery production. Assuming 50% of EU vehicle sales are EVs in 2030, it will create a supply chain worth €50 billion a year.