cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/53226463
Automotive Cells Company, the Stellantis-TotalEnergies-Mercedes JV, may drop its planned Termoli gigafactory after 20–25% higher costs at its Douvrin pilot plant. Stellantis now pivots to CATL-backed LFP cell production in Zaragoza.
ACC’s pilot plant in Douvrin, France, which began operations in 2024, has encountered technical and financial obstacles. Scrap rates of 15 to 20 percent have limited production to approximately 15,000–20,000 battery packs in late 2025, while production costs are estimated to be 20 to 25 percent higher than those of leading Asian competitors. These issues, combined with strategic considerations, have led Stellantis to shift its focus toward lithium-iron phosphate (LFP) battery technology.
According to a new report, the problem is that the capacity to build EV batteries far outstrips demand globally.
- In North America, there is 1.9 times as much capacity as demand. In Europe, the capacity-to-demand ratio is 2.2.
- It’s worst in China with 5.6 times as much battery-building capacity as there is demand for batteries.
- Material and production costs are still high, which means EVs often aren’t cheaper than gas cars, reducing demand.
They were still planning to build a new nickel-manganese-cobalt battery plant? That sounds like the project was in planning hell for 20 years…
Even LFP seems questionable if they aim for cheaper batteries, with sodium-ion batteries likely dominating that field by the time the factory will be completed.
