The groups have signed an agreement for a joint venture. The project is to be funded with 1.3 billion euros.
The Peugeot manufacturer PSA with its German subsidiary Opel and the French energy giant Total with its subsidiary Saft want to invest billions in building up a European battery production facility. The groups signed an agreement for their long-planned joint venture, the Automotive Cells Company (ACC), as PSA announced on Thursday.
The project will be funded by the governments in Germany and France with a total of 1.3 billion euros, said PSA. In total, investments of more than five billion euros are planned. The manufacturer confirmed earlier information that two large factories are to be built in Douvrin, France, and Kaiserslautern. According to earlier information from Opel boss Michael Lohscheller, 2000 jobs will be created in Kaiserslautern.
EU countries want to build battery factories in time for the boom in electric cars. France’s head of state Emmanuel Macron had demanded at the beginning of the year that Europe must become more independent of battery manufacturers in Asia who could raise prices. In January he gave the go-ahead for a battery cell pilot production in Nersac in southwestern France.
