A French start-up emerges from stealth mode with plan to build huge battery gigafactory by 2023, writes Leigh Collins, editor of Rechargenews.com. Verkor, a French industrial company, aims to build 16GWh facility in France to reduce Europe's dependence on imported lithium-ion batteries.
“There is an acceleration in demand for electric vehicles, but we continue to import batteries from Asia,” Verkor chief executive Benoit Lemaignan told AFP. “We must endow France with production capacity.”
Collins writes in her article that with the support of EIT Innoenergy, Schneider Electric and Group IDEC, Verkor plans to set up a:
• Gigafactory in France in 2023,
• initially 16 GWh/a production capacity
• ramp up to 50 GWh/a planned,
• initial investment of €1.6bn planned,
• create 2000 jobs in the EV space
More about this development can be read at rechargenews.com
