International Lead Association (ILA)

Europe has been urged to develop a new industrial strategy to “champion” all batteries, including lead-acid.

The managing director of the International Lead Association (ILA), Dr Andy Bush (pictured), said the creation of a Batteries Alliance and a ‘batteries action plan’ for the EU, has been “one of the successes of the European Commission”.

However, Bush said it was a “weakness” for EU policymakers to “focus predominantly on one battery technology, omitting to support Europe’s existing strengths in this area and the jobs it generates in our societies”.

Battery industry leaders in Germany say there is currently “no business case” for “politically-inspired” plans by the European Union to build at least 10 Gigafactories across the bloc for lithium-based batteries.

EU energy chief Maroš Šefčovič said last week the Gigafactories would be needed to produce “green European batteries” for new electric vehicles produced in Europe— and to combat Asia’s increasing dominance in the EV batteries sector.

Lead producers are urging EU leaders to urgently rethink proposals to invest in setting up a Europe-wide ‘batteries alliance’ that would fail to include the region’s powerhouse lead-acid battery industry.

The call came after EU energy chief Maroš Šefčovič (pictured) told an industry summit he hosted in Brussels that a blueprint for the ‘EU Battery Alliance’ was needed to “strongly support the establishment of a full value chain of batteries in Europe, with large-scale battery cells production and the circular economy at the core”.