Name of the Project
Electric vehicle (EV) battery manufacturing facility.

Location
The project will be located at the Saft Nersac plant near Angoulême, in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of France.

Project Owner/s
The Automotive Cell Company (ACC), a 50:50 joint venture between Saft, a subsidiary of Total, and car manufacturer Groupe PSA/Opel. During the commercial production phase, Saft’s share in ACC will decline to 33%.

Project Description
Saft and PSA plan to combine their experience to develop an EV battery manufacturing activity in Europe.

The project will leverage pioneering research and development (R&D), notably provided by Saft, to produce EV batteries in 2023. The technology used will offer the highest level of energy per­formance in terms of range and charging time, and a lower carbon footprint than that of the competition, setting a new standard in Europe.

The first phase of the project focuses on R&D, including building a pilot plant at Saft’s Nersac facility. This will trigger the investment decision for a large-scale production plant (8 GWh initially, increasing to 24 GWh later on) in the northern Hauts-de-France region. This will be followed by a second plant of equal capacity in Germany, to reach 48 GWh of combined capacity by 2030.

The plant will produce one-million batteries a year, or 10% to 15% of the European market.

Potential Job Creation
The project will create about 200 high-skilled jobs in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region to develop, qualify and commercially scale up new, high-performance lithium-ion batteries.

Capital Expenditure
€200-million.

Planned Start/End Date
The pilot plant is scheduled to start up in mid-2021.

About €5-billion will be required to complete the entire project.

Latest Developments
None stated.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
None stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
Saft, tel +33 1 58 63 16 00 or email saftpress.contact@saftbatteries.com.
Groupe PSA, tel +33 6 61 93 29 36 or email psa-presse@mpsa.com.