German chancellor Angela Merkel has pledged to “whip up” the development of a made-in-Europe battery cells industry— but she held out the possibility of cooperation with international partners.
Merkel, who studied physics, said it was “unbelievably sad… that we cannot produce battery cells in the land of the founding fathers of electrochemistry (or) even the whole of Europe”.
The German leader said during a visit to industrial electrical products manufacturer, Mennekes, the battery cells issue made her “restless”, which was why she intended to “whip it up where I can, making it a strategic European development— just as we are once again pursuing chip development as a strategic project”.
Germany stands ready to partner European and other nations in battery cell production for electric vehicles and other applications, but Merkel said she was “not sure” it would be a good idea to be have “Chinese or Asian dependencies”.
BEST Battery Briefing revealed recently that Germany had started hush-hush talks with EU leaders aimed at relaxing state-aid rules, so the government could pump cash into launching a national battery cell production programme.
The move came after BBB reported Germany was dipping into an economic aid fund to support the construction of a battery cells factory in the country by Chinese lithium giant Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL).
