SectorsBatteries and solar

Batteries in Europe's industrial transition

supply security

Battery cells are the one part of Europe's industrial transition where the factories did not exist before. Cement and steel have plants to convert; batteries have sites to build, and almost every one of them was announced in the last six years. Europe's carmakers, grid operators and defence buyers will need cells in volumes that today come mostly from Asia, and the question Brussels has asked since 2017 is whether those cells will be made here.

Building the industry is structurally hard. A cell plant is capital-intensive at a scale few European firms have raised, the learning curve rewards whoever has already run a line for years, and the incumbents in China, Korea and Japan have. Energy prices in Europe are higher, demand depends on how fast electric vehicles and grid storage are bought, and the choice of cell chemistry is not settled: a plant built for one chemistry can be the wrong plant by the time it opens. Several of the largest announced projects have been paused or cancelled for exactly these reasons.

The technology paths are fewer than in cement or steel. Nickel-based cells for range and performance, iron-phosphate cells for cost, sodium-ion as a lithium-free option, and solid-state designs still moving from pilot to line. Each carries its own dependency on materials that Europe mines or refines only in part, which is why the materials on this page matter as much as the plants.

EU law frames the sector from both sides. Demand comes from two directions: fleet emission standards for cars and vans fix the share of new vehicles that must be electric, and the build-out of wind and solar under the renewable energy targets needs storage to hold power from when it is made to when it is used. Storage is the faster-growing of the two and the one where Europe's cells compete on cost alone, since a grid battery has no brand on it. The Battery Regulation sets the requirements for the cells themselves: a carbon footprint declaration, recycled content, supply-chain due diligence and a digital battery passport. Public money follows through the Innovation Fund, state aid approvals and the joint European battery projects. Which of the announced plants are actually being built, by whom, and with whose money?

European batteries and solar is trying to secure its own supply.

Three routes are being built: gigafactory-scale cell manufacturing (21 projects), nickel-rich cells (8) and lithium iron phosphate cells (2). as of 2026-09-12
21 European batteries and solar projects are under way, 18 of them have taken a final investment decision, and 4 are paused and 8 have been cancelled. as of 2026-09-12
UniverCell Flintbek started operating on 12 September 2026. as of 2026-09-12

Where Europe is building batteries

22 sites in 9 countries: 17 operating, commissioning or under construction, 3 announced or funded and not yet built, 2 paused. Each one opens its own page. 2 of 22 marks are the works the installation stands on rather than its own outline. 11 projects on file are not drawn: ACC Termoli, Italvolt Scarmagno, Morrow Cell Factory, SVOLT Überherrn — cancelled; and ACC Kaiserslautern (cancelled), Britishvolt Blyth (cancelled), Farasis Bitterfeld-Wolfen (paused), NOVO Energy Gothenburg (paused), SVOLT Lauchhammer (cancelled) and 1 more — location not sought; and UniverCell Flintbek (operating) — no citable source places the works.

filled: operating, commissioning or under constructionhollow: announced, funded, or paused

37.9871° N–64.7340° N 8.7974° W–21.7435° E22 sites

as of 2026-09-05

On file and not drawn: 11

ACC Kaiserslautern — cancelled, location not sought
ACC Termoli — cancelled, cancelled and drawn on its own crop only
Britishvolt Blyth — cancelled, location not sought
Farasis Bitterfeld-Wolfen — paused, location not sought
Italvolt Scarmagno — cancelled, cancelled and drawn on its own crop only
Morrow Cell Factory — cancelled, cancelled and drawn on its own crop only
NOVO Energy Gothenburg — paused, location not sought
SVOLT Lauchhammer — cancelled, location not sought
SVOLT Überherrn — cancelled, cancelled and drawn on its own crop only
T1 Energy Giga Arctic — cancelled, location not sought
UniverCell Flintbek — operating, no citable source places the works

What is being built in European batteries

33 projects on file — 18 running, 3 announced or funded, 4 paused, 8 cancelled — as of 2026-09-12

UniverCell FlintbekRunningFlintbek, DE — no public funding on file2026-09-12
T1 Energy Giga ArcticCancelledMo i Rana, NO — no public funding on fileby 2026-09-09
Tesla Giga Berlin cell manufacturingRunningGrünheide, DE — no public funding on file2026-07-22
Northvolt DreiPausedHeide, DE — €902 m committed2026-07-01
SVOLT ÜberherrnCancelledÜberherrn, DE — no public funding on file2026-05-07

All 33 projects →

What does batteries depend on

4 technologies, 1 material, 4 constraints — as of 2026-05-08

Gigafactory-scale cell manufacturingtechnologycommercial — Several European sites are producing at scale. PowerCo commissioned Salzgitter on 17 December 2025 and produced the first Unified Cells made in Europe; ACC has been running at Billy-Berclau since 2023 and Verkor opened Bourbourg in December 2025.2025-12-17
Lithium iron phosphate cellstechnologycommercial — Commercial worldwide and being built in Europe rather than made here at scale yet: the Stellantis and CATL joint venture at Zaragoza is a 50 GWh LFP site targeted to start production by the end of 2026.2024-12-10
Nickel-rich cellstechnologycommercial — The chemistry most European lines run. Verkor opened Bourbourg on 11 December 2025 making high-performance cells for Renault and Alpine.2025-12-11
Sodium-ion cellstechnologyearly-commercial — CATL launched Naxtra as a mass-production sodium-ion cell in April 2025. No European site makes sodium-ion cells, so the readiness is the technology's and not this sector's — which is the gap it is on this list to mark.2025-04-21
Sodiummaterialfeedstock

All 9 dependencies →

Which EU rules matter for batteries

10 of 179 tracked measures are in this sector's view, ordered by what they cost or grant it

New cars sold in Europe have to be zero-emissionFrom 2035 a new passenger car sold in the Union may emit no CO2 where it is driven, which at fleet scale means the car carries a battery.
Europe sets itself capacity goals for its own raw materialsBy 2030 the Union is to be able to extract, process and recycle set shares of the strategic raw materials it consumes each year, rather than buying all of them from outside.
Public contracts for battery storage must buy EuropeanPublic buyers procuring battery storage have to apply the Union-origin requirements the act sets out for it, so part of the demand is closed to a cell made elsewhere.
Carmakers pay for every gram they are over their targetA carmaker whose fleet exceeds its target pays a premium for each gram per kilometre of the excess on every vehicle it registered, which is what makes the target a purchasing decision rather than an ambition.
Carmakers must halve the emissions of the cars they sellFrom 2030 the average new car sold in the Union has to cut its emissions by more than half against the baseline year, with new vans close behind, which is the demand a factory being built today supplies.