348 Save for later Print Download Share LinkedIn Twitter Electric vehicle (EV) batteries are a showcase of how Europe is building an energy transition industry from scratch. Five years after the European Commission launched the European Battery Alliance in October 2017, some 25 "gigafactory" projects totaling over 500 gigawatt hours of annual production capacity have been announced, up from around 30 GWh per year in service now. French start-up Verkor's project in Dunkirk is one of them. It is expected to start delivering batteries in 2025 with an initial capacity of 16 GWh/yr, to be expanded to 50 GWh/yr by 2030. "Five years from now, Europe will be almost on par with China in terms of total production capacity, and ahead of China in terms of how much local carmakers are supplied domestically," says Philippe Chain, Verkor's co-founder and chief customer officer.
