"Battery valley" in France expecting benefits from Chinese know-how

In the "battery valley" in northern France, Chinese enterprises actively join in local projects to produce electric vehicles and their batteries, a partnership widely appreciated by a region keen on green re-industrialization.

With four "gigafactories" announced in three years, the "battery valley" is interested in "taking on strengths from all countries, including Chinese players who have gained a real lead in battery and electric vehicle technology so that we can also benefit from their know-how," said Yann Pitollet, CEO of Nord France Invest.

The ACC gigafactory, announced in 2020 and in production since May 2023, is a joint venture of TotalEnergies, Stellantis and Mercedes-Benz. For the other three, invested respectively by the Chinese group Envision AESC, the French startup Verkor and the solid battery specialist Prologium, the region has "put in place administrative processes that make it possible to go fast," said Pitollet.

"We have no worries that everything will go well," he said, adding that the Envision AESC plant, announced in 2021, is under construction and will be commissioned shortly, and the Prologium plant, announced by French President Emmanuel Macron in May 2023, is in the study phase.

In addition, at the end of 2023, Chinese group XTC New Energy, a leader in the manufacture of cathodes (a battery component), and French nuclear fuel cycle group Orano announced a project to manufacture cathodes and recycle batteries, not far from the Verkor and Prologium plants.

In January this year, in the joint venture set up by Renault group and the Chinese automotive supplier Minth in Ruitz in the "battery valley," two new production lines began to manufacture battery boxes for electric vehicles.

"What really interests us is to have this partnership so that we can benefit from the know-how of these Chinese companies that have made very, very rapid progress, particularly in electric vehicles, but also in upstream technologies," Pitollet said.

For Renault Group, which has partnered with Envision AESC for the battery gigafactory, the success of the joint venture with Minth is a model for other projects. Launched on July 13 last year, the joint venture managed to start production in less than three months with two new lines installed.

A battery box seems to be just a box, but it actually must fulfill three main functions — sealing, cooling and precision, said Jean-Luc Bois, director of the Renault Electricity site in Ruitz.

"Minth's experience on these lines of production is the culmination of a number of other lines that allowed them to learn," he said. "One of the benefits of working with a Chinese partner is this know-how about the product and the process. We are stronger working together than starting alone from zero."

Renault is committed to concentrating industrial activities on its electric cars in France. It has grouped all activities around electric cars in Ampere, a new branch officially launched in November 2023.

Renault Ampere aims to produce 400,000 electric vehicles per year in 2025 in France. The national goal is to produce nearly 2 million electric and hybrid vehicles in France by 2030. To this end, nearly all the elements linked to the electric car value chain must be localized in France.

Thus the "battery valley" has to work fast, Pitollet said. "What is expected by car manufacturers — Stellantis, Renault or customers elsewhere in Europe, such as major German brands, is that production must be effective and at an industrial level by 2025."

The CEO of Nord France Invest described his region as "already effectively the heart of the electric sector in France" with an ambition to become "one of the poles for electric vehicles in Europe."

Apart from assets such as the availability of land and electricity, he relies on access to a skilled workforce to attract more investments. The region is pushing for an alliance of training organizations to train 20,000 people in the coming years.

The University of Artois in the region opened a new school in September to "train engineers of the future who will work in a more electrified world." Students of the university are already being trained at the Minth-Renault plant.

"We put them in an industrial situation where they see the reality of current technology," said Gabriel Velu, vice president of the university. "France took its turn on electricity a little late, therefore we need others to help us catch up."

For the region of Hauts-de-France, building a "battery valley" within a few years' time marks an upturn in its green reindustrialization.

This "allows us to think about the equipment, the local production of parts for the vehicle, all the questions of supply and eventually the recovery of waste," said Olivier Gacquerre, mayor of Bethune and also president of a group of some 100 nearby municipalities including Ruitz.

"So for us, it is a fundamental economic question that will also allow us to deal with social issues — when you have the economy, it helps families to settle down, helps children to build a future," he added.