Brussels — Eurobat, the Association of European Automotive and Industrial Battery Manufacturers, welcomes the initiative of Vice-President Maros Sefcovic to launch an alliance on battery development and production in Europe. Eurobat believes that one key condition for the success of this initiative is that coherence must be found for a regulatory framework that ensures a further development of all existing and new battery technologies in Europe.
According to Eurobat, batteries will be a key component of the future energy and transport systems, and are contributing already today to the decarbonisation of the EU economy. To have Europe take full advantage of economic and social benefits, it will be important to strengthen and launch consistent investment opportunities for the European battery sector, in line with the Eurobat call for a battery strategy for Europe from February this year.
A variety of battery chemistries and technologies exists today: lead, lithium, sodium and nickel batteries. They all answer to different demands in terms of performance, capabilities and applications. Batteries play a key role in the development of cleaner vehicles, from start-stop technology to various degrees of powertrain hybridization and the emergence of full electric passenger vehicles, trucks and buses. However, internal combustion engine and electric vehicles will co-exist for the foreseeable future, and full advantage of all possible CO2 emission saving potential from automotive batteries in all types of vehicles should be taken.
Different battery technologies are also employed in other types of applications: They offer fundamental energy storage and grid balancing services, allowing the integration of renewables into the energy mix and the stability of the electricity grid. Motive power batteries, used for instance in forklift trucks and machine handling equipment, offer another opportunity to decarbonize the EU economy.
At the meeting on 11 October, Eurobat underlined that Europe needs a regulatory framework that ensures a further development of all existing and new battery technologies without jeopardizing or even banning them. More coherence between different EU initiatives related to batteries is absolutely needed to ensure the development and production of all existing and new battery technologies in Europe. One such example is the need to address the legislative overlap that exists between the Battery Directive, End-of-Life Vehicles Directive and REACH Regulation. An EU framework and strong political support are needed to reinforce a European eco-system for the further development of an independent, domestic battery industry which maintains and creates jobs in Europe. Public funding supporting R&D and manufacturing initiatives will be fundamental to support this effort.
The initiative of Vice-President Maros Sefcovic is clearly a step in the right direction and Eurobat shares the view that quick action is needed. As the representative association of European manufacturers of automotive, energy storage and industrial batteries, Eurobat will offer their support for the next steps of this initiative with the ultimate objective of strengthening the competitiveness of the EU battery industry.
Source: EUROBAT – Association of European Automotive and Industrial Battery Manufacturers
