politicians come and go, the issue remains. Federal Minister of research, Anja Karliczek (CDU) on Wednesday for the first time, the battery forum, the annual industry meeting in Berlin, where politicians, scientists and company representatives stress the need for a battery cell manufacturing in Germany. And the since 2013. “We are dependent on Asia,” was the Minister. “The automobile nation of Germany should not be dependent on a Region.” To change this, the Ministry of education and research half a billion euros for the construction of a “research factory battery” in the Hand, to serve to the idea of Karliczek as a “transfer center for mass production”. According to the Motto: If the industry is not a manufacturing factory, then the policy goes ahead with a research factory.
Mercedes buys for € 20 billion cells
The demand for cells and batteries for electric cars age and the transition to renewable energy is indisputable. Alone, Daimler has recently ordered for EUR 20 billion cells in the case of Asian manufacturers. The Problem here is On the market only half a dozen companies from China, South Korea and Japan. Due to their market power, LG Chem, SKI, Samsung, CATL, BYD and Panasonic can enforce high prices and your customers to put pressure on you: Some cell manufacturer wants to close a contract only by cells but over the entire battery. From a cell supplier is a system supplier that provides by far the most important component in the electric car. These are not good prospects for the German manufacturers dominate the world market.
VW is cooperating with SKI
The number one, Volkswagen intends to build jointly with South Korean SK Innovation cell factories. Maybe with Ford and with the largest German small-cell manufacturers, the Varta micro battery from the Swabian town of Ellwangen. Currently a lot of talk and tactics.
VW needs to the middle of the next decade, the capacity of the five major cell factories. One of them is likely to arise in Eastern Europe; in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia, the VW group already builds engines and cars. For a second production site in Eastern Germany, because VW remodels currently, the factory in Zwickau to a pure E-car manufacturing. And because the Federal government wants a factory in this country. Economy Minister Peter Altmaier (CDU) has provided a billion Euro support in views. A Problem with this: The billion may only flow if the EU is classified as a cell production as an Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEIS). The Commission would like to, but there is resistance in some Eastern European countries: Hungary, Czechs, poles or Slovaks fear a competitive disadvantage, if the rich Western countries may entice you with funding billion.
In Eastern Europe caused factories
in fact, some of the Asian companies are building manufacturing plants in Eastern Europe. Also the VW Partner SKI. The South Koreans have moved two years ago, the empty halls of First Solar in Frankfurt (Oder) for a first factory in Europe, but due to costs and approval times, the Koreans opted for Hungary. Perhaps Frankfurt is now coming back into the game, because there Altmaier could also Poland with integrate – with regard to deliveries of materials or the Recycling of batteries as one of the great business of the future branches. And with the help of the poles, it would be easier to reach in Brussels, the IPCEIS.
Matthias Machnig (SPD), former German state Secretary for Economic Affairs and the consulting company Innoenergy, sees the poles in a “coalition of the willing” besides the French, the Swedes, Finns and Germans. “The next two years, the game will be crucial,” said Machnig on the battery forum. On the 250-billion-Euro cell market in Europe in the next decade up to four million additional jobs when the industry finally come in, the courses and the policy with the help of the IPCEIS funding billion in the Hand should.
500 million in research
in this Country flowed flowed in the last ten years, around € 500 million in battery research. With a further 500 million euros will now be in the context of the research factory, which is operated by the Fraunhofer society, on the three areas of “Material”, “cell processes” as well as “battery cell production” worked. In the middle of the year, the location of the new facility is expected to be selected for the a half-dozen of the länder apply. In the Federal System, it will probably be a kind of division into three parts – the South (Ulm/Karlsruhe), the West (Braunschweig, Germany) and the East, specifically Dresden, are favored. Six cell manufacturers do not want to cooperate with the research factory, the Biggest one is this: The Swabian Varta goes its own way.