Stakeholder Consultation on the draft decision for the Battery Booster Facility
EUROBAT, the Association of European Automotive and Industrial Battery Manufacturers, welcomes the Battery Booster Facility as a vital response to the ramp-up challenges facing Europe's battery ecosystem amid global overcapacity and subsidy distortions. The Battery Booster Facility, with its €1.5 billion interest free loan mechanism, recognises high scrap rates, yield optimisation, and quality validation critical during the ramp-up phase and will complements the Net Zero Industry Act and Strategic Action Plan for Batteries.
However, the current draft unduly restricts access due to two restrictive eligibility thresholds, namely limiting support to electric vehicle (EV) battery cell production only and to site a capacity of ≥10 GWh. Together, these conditions risk unnecessarily narrowing the scope of the Facility, and excluding important segments of Europe’s battery ecosystem, in particular they would exclude:
- Cell production for other industrial battery applications, such as semi-traction, motive power off-road vehicles and for stationary energy storage, the latest vital for grid expansion, stability and reliability
- Capacity expansions by established EU battery manufacturers, despite the that scaling up existing production capacities is critical to strengthening Europe’s domestic battery industry
- Battery technologies with high degree of recyclability fitting the Circular Economy drive and the Critical Raw Material Act. Batteries that are needed for critical infrastructure since an increasing share of UPS batteries are coming from country posing a serious and structural risk to security.
Smaller-scale facilities (<10 GWh) which play an important role in supporting the production output and/or supply chains of the large EV cell production gigafactories
EUROBAT therefore recommends broadening eligibility criteria by specifically stating that the EU support applies to all sustainable battery chemistries and reconsidering the ≥10 GWh site threshold. This would ensure that the BBF would support the full diversity of Europe’s battery ecosystem and maximises its impact of Europe’s industrial competitiveness, cybersecurity and energy transition. Read it here.
