Local battery factories have come down to the field, Europe entered the global battery competition

Recently, at the World Power Battery Congress Forum 2023, the head of the European Battery Alliance (EBA), Torrey Sackness, said that China is expected to continue to play a leading role in power battery production capacity by 2030, and Europe will be second in the world after China.
　　In the field of power batteries, Europe is not less ambitious. Šefčovič, vice president of the European Commission, has also said that by 2025, Europe will become the world's second largest producer of lithium-ion batteries after China.However, as the world's second largest electric vehicle market, Europe's power battery capacity is in the lagging echelon. According to market research firm SNE Research, Ningde Time (213.400, 0.30, 0.14%) tops the list of installed global power battery capacity in 2022, followed by LG New Energy, BYD (263.000, 1.78, 0.68%), Panasonic, SK On, and Samsung SDI. It can be seen that the strength of Chinese, Japanese and Korean battery companies are clearly ahead, and no European companies are among the top ten for the time being.
　　In this context, Europe is becoming more and more urgent in strengthening the local battery supply. In recent years, the EU government has not only provided large amounts of aid funds for battery projects, but also committed to leveraging private investment. In May this year, the European Commission approved an 837 million euro aid program for Spain to support battery production for the electric and connected car industry chain. At the same time, European battery factories and automakers have entered the market in an attempt to gain a foothold in the increasingly fierce global battery competition.
　　In October 2017, the EU created the European Battery Alliance, which aims to build a strong pan-European battery industry in an effort to capture a market worth 250 billion euros/year by 2025.
　　Now, China, Japan and South Korea clearly occupy the technology and product advantages in the battery industry, whether Europe can catch up and occupy "a market worth 250 billion euros / year" has become a problem to be solved.
　　Backward echelon
　　For many years, the European automotive industry has been famous and has an unshakeable industrial advantage. However, along with the strong rise of electric vehicles, the global automotive industry picture is changing.
　　The International Energy Agency (IEA) data show that in 2022, electric vehicle sales reached a record 10 million units, occupying about 14% of the total automotive market. the IEA expects that sales are expected to continue to grow to 14 million units in 2023, accounting for about 18% of the automotive market.
　　According to SNE Research, the global power battery installed base reached 517.9 GWh in 2022, up 71.8% year-on-year, and is expected to reach 794 GWh in 2023.
　　Europe, as the world's second largest electric vehicle market, will also maintain strong battery demand. According to the forecast of Global Battery Alliance, the global battery demand will grow to 2600-3600GWH (GWh) in 2030, of which the EU occupies about 17% share, about 443-572GWH (GWh).
　　In the face of the massive market, Europe is clearly behind the echelon in terms of battery capacity. ranked fourth, with a market share of 7.3%.
　　TrendForce analyst Zeng Youpeng told 21 reporters, "Since the commercialization of lithium-ion batteries, the scale has been expanding in the early days driven by global demand for consumer electronics. In the era of strong demand for consumer electronics, China, Japan and South Korea's lithium-ion battery production scale and manufacturing technology has laid the early competitive landscape, when electric vehicles took over as the largest application market for lithium-ion batteries, the European power battery industry not only lacks a complete supply chain system and needs to rely on imports, but also the technology is in the pace of catching up with China, Japan and South Korea."
　　True lithium research founder and president Mo Ke holds the same view, he told 21 reporters, "the world's first commercial lithium-ion battery launched by Sony in 1991, after more than a decade since then, the lithium industry gradually expanded to nearby South Korea and China, East Asia built a very complete industrial chain at the same time, the battery cost is also falling rapidly. "