The European Union needs to rethink competition laws to better compete in the batteries market with Asian players, a German ministerial aide has told European battery manufacturers.
But Thomas Bareiss (pictured), parliamentary state secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, admitted that while Germany wanted to be “agnostic” in terms of its support for battery technologies, lithium-ion is currently favoured over lead-acid to build a European battery cells industry to cater for electric vehicles.
Bareiss told the Association of European Automotive and Industrial Battery Manufacturers, Eurobat, Europe must also invest in producing more battery raw materials from within the bloc to strengthen security of supplies.
Bareiss said existing EU competition laws “ignored the reality” of the state support that Chinese battery makers received to expand into overseas markets.
Germany said last year it would pump €1 billion (US$1.1bn) into promoting battery cell production by 2021— with the aim of German and European producers “supplying 30% of global demand” by 2030.
