Last week, President Emmanuel Macron laid out his strategy to re-industrialize France, particularly by setting up battery factories for electric cars. At the same time, Taiwanese Prologium announced the establishment of a new battery factory in Dunkirk, which will produce solid-state batteries. A revolutionary solution should double the autonomy of electric cars in the long term.
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Indeed, a fourth project has just been announced, with the Douvrin battery factories (scheduled to open at the end of May), Douai and Dunkirk with French start-up Verkor. The formalization followed Emmanuel Macron’s visit to northern France Its strategy was to re-industrialize the country.
The north of France, an important place
ProLogium Company from Taiwan has announced this Construction of a fourth battery factory in France, a first in Europe. But unlike other factories, ProLogium has other ambitions, as the Asian company wants to manufacture so-called “solid” batteries in France.
ProLogium plans to invest around 5.2 billion euros in Dunkirk by 2030. Annual production capacity is 48 GWh (enough to fit about 1 million electric cars per year). The company hopes to start production by the end of 2026 and increase its capacity over several years, creating 3,000 jobs at the factory and 12,000 indirect jobs.
But why choose Dunkirk? The reasons are many, according to Gilles Normand, vice president responsible for international development at Prologium Group. In fact, the Taiwanese company wants access “Carbon Free Electricity”And not just at Dunkirk.” Nuclear power is available, but so are offshore wind farms.. Enough to make electric cars “cleaner” than they already are.
And in general, a whole ecosystem for batteries is developing in the north of France with the other three projects mentioned above. Let’s remember that too Many electric car factories are located in Northern EuropeAnd Dunkirk is well served by rail, road and a deep-sea port, facilitating the import and export of their products.
What is a solid state battery?
But why did you choose solid batteries and not lithium? Challenge the future of ProLogium, And I think solid state batteries have more advantages than lithium batteries.
Lithium-ion batteries have some drawbacks. Important among them are safety aspects and especially fire risk. In fact, heating the electrolyte solution while charging and discharging the cells of a lithium-ion battery can cause a fire. However, this is very rare in newer lithium LFP batteries that do not contain cobalt.
This is why many safety mechanisms are implemented into battery packs, but obviously these systems take up space. The space will be used to install new cells and increase the range of electric cars.
Although Elon Musk thinks this is not necessary, the challenge lies in the possibility of achieving autonomy comparable to that seen in equivalent thermal models. Solid-state batteries should allow electric vehicles to become autonomous Their energy density is very high compared to lithium batteries. There is talk of doubling this energy density compared to lithium batteries by the end of the decade.
Solid-state batteries will then be perfect for electric cars: at the same size and the same weight, the number of cells can be significantly increased, and therefore the capacity of the battery pack, and therefore the autonomy.
New investors are entering the dance
At the same time, Emmanuel Macron announced that Chinese company XTC and French company Orano would invest. 1.5 billion euros and will create 1,700 jobs at the lithium battery production site in Dunkirk AFP said in a statement Knowledge of energies.
A joint venture between XTC and Orano is considered, according to the French president “Extra” At the ProLogium plant, as it will be involved in the upstream phase of battery manufacturing: the plant will produce battery cathodes. Like the Prologium factory, the joint venture was to be located far from the port of Dunkirk.
Emmanuel Macron, by the end of the decade, More than 20,000 new jobs will be created in the Dunkirk area.
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