Verkor Picks Dunkirk for First EV Battery Gigafactory

Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--French battery start-up Verkor (Grenoble, France) has picked the port city of Dunkirk, France, as the location for the country's first electric vehicle (EV) battery gigafactory.

After evaluating 40 sites around France, Spain and Italy, the company opted for Dunkirk on the northern coast for a number of key reasons including access to a very large site, power, skilled workforce, scalability, proximity to customers and its key investment partner, carmaker Renault (Boulogne-Billancourt). The goal is to start construction on the 150-hectare site next year with commissioning expected in July 2025. Manufacturing capacity at launch will be 16 gigawatt-hours (GWh)--enough for 300,000 electric vehicles--expanding to 50 GWh by 2030. Renault, which purchased "more than a 20%" stake in the company last summer, will take 10 GWh of the first 16 GWh of capacity and 20 GWh of the 50 GWh target by 2030. The plant will employ 1,200 workers.

The decision was welcomed by the French government's Minister of Industry, Agnès Pannier-Runacher: "Mastering the entire battery value chain is critical to the transition to electric mobility. I welcome this new important step by Verkor. Their choice of location reinforces "the electric battery valley" that is taking shape in the Hauts de France, as well as its dynamic ecosystem. It sends a positive signal to Dunkirk's industrial platform, which has key assets in the sector. Verkor, like many players in the value chain, can rely on the Government's ongoing support under the France 2030 plan."

Benoit Lemaignan, chief executive officer of Verkor, added: "We are eager now to work with our partners to unite all the winning conditions to build the best battery-cell factory in the world. Dunkirk is the best choice among many other great opportunities." The company recently welcomed international mining and metal processing group Sibanye-Stillwater Ltd (NYSE:SBSW) as a new strategic investor. As well as being a key source of materials for Verkor, Sibanye-Stillwater said it forms part of its strategy "to be an important supplier to European EV battery metals supply chains". Verkor is also investing in its Innovation Centre in Grenoble, which will house its HQ, an R&D laboratory for developing new battery technologies, and a Battery Campus which will act as a training centre and bring together start-ups and partners working across all aspects of battery design and management.

In recent weeks, Industrial Info has reported on EV battery company Northvolt's (Stockholm, Sweden) new expansion plans to transform a closed paper mill in Sweden into a new gigafactory while in the U.K. EV battery start-up, Britishvolt, received government funding to build the country's first gigafactory. For additional information, see March 8, 2022, article--Swedish Papermill Chosen for New Northvolt EV Battery Gigafactory and January 31, 2022, article--First EV Battery 'Gigafactory' for U.K. Gets Funding Boost.

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