The EU’s energy chief has called for the creation of a Europe-wide consortium to support the battery industry— to prevent the EU “falling behind” in the race with China and other nations to power electric vehicles (EVs).
Maroš Šefčovič, the European Commission vice-president responsible for the ‘EU energy union’, said the bloc should invest in an “Airbus for batteries”— a consortium that he said could do for batteries what the European multinational does for the aircraft industry.
Šefčovič told Germany’s Süddeutsche Zeitung “we must recognise that the US and China have moved faster than we have in terms of electric mobility”.
“This technology is too important for us to import it from overseas,” Šefčovič said. “We have the resources to support research, infrastructure and the market as a whole,” Šefčovič said.
And Šefčovič said the EU could “call up EUR2 billion” ($2.4bn) to help fund further research into battery technologies and the development of “alternative vehicles”.
Šefčovič’s remarks came as European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker outlined proposals for a new EU framework to screen foreign investment that raises security or public order concerns for the EU or its member states— such as in “energy infrastructure”.
China— whose recent investments in Europe include battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology Limited (CATL) taking a stake in a Finnish auto supplier Valmet Automotive— has been quick to condemn the proposals.
The deputy chief of the China Daily European bureau, Fu Jing, said in an opinion article: “The EU is an expensive and complicated market… EU decision-makers should carefully study the pros and cons of the proposed regulation, and if they realise it will harm investments and investors they would do well to drop it.”