BERLIN (Reuters) – The European Union aims to produce battery cells for at least 7 million electric cars a year by 2025, the economy ministers of Germany and France and a top EU official wrote in an article for the Handelsblatt business daily.
As part of its plan to become climate neutral by 2050, the EU wants to boost local production of battery cells to power clean vehicles without relying on imports, especially from China.
Recently, the EU had made “giant steps” in building up the industry, said Peter Altmaier, Bruno Le Maire and European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic in a joint article to be published in Friday’s edition of the paper.
The EU is thus “in a position to build greater economic sovereignty and independence in a strategically important industry”, they wrote.
The EU is constructing large-scale battery cell factories. In November, Sefcovic said by 2025, the planned European facilities would produce cells to power at last 6 million electric vehicles.
(Reporting by Madeline Chambers; Editing by Giles Elgood)
