Commercial or national solution: what you need to know about the tightrope in the cells of the battery

Shutterstock World trade is beautiful and good. But Angela Merkel calls on the German auto industry to build battery cells for electric vehicles. "Can we do well if, as a continent producing cars, we buy the battery cells of Asia?" Asked the Chancellor before visiting Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in Berlin. And he himself gave the answer: "We must not give up these key industries." Now the largest Chinese battery company CATL wants to build a cell factory in Thuringia. BMW wants to buy big there.

Where are the builders taking their batteries today?

VW, Daimler and BMW buy cells in Asia and then build them in big batteries for their electric cars. Panasonic in Japan, LG, Samsung and SK in Korea, CATL and BYD in China – the market is "more than an oligopoly with up to ten dominant suppliers," says industry expert Jörn Neuhausen from PwC Consulting. After all: "Currently, there is enough competition, and all car manufacturers buy their batteries from several manufacturers, so that there is no monopoly." Battery expert Kai-Christian Möller of Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft states: "Every manufacturer has several suppliers, Korea and Japan are very stable, there are probably no bottlenecks in the supply, no customs barriers to be feared. "

Will cell supply also be safe in the future?

"Who will be the first to be supplied, if the numbers increase enormously?", Questions the Bavarian boss IG Metall and the supervisory board of BMW, Jürgen Wechsler. The producers could announce one day, they no longer delivered individual cells, the manufacturers only received batteries ready for use. "It's our fear." A Chinese cell factory in Thuringia is good, but the German industry has to produce key technologies itself. "If we give up the battery, because we receive it, we'll be gone one day."

The battery represents a good third of the added value of an electric car, it determines the performance and range. Automakers are trying to turn the tide: they are developing cells themselves in pilot plants and trying to turn suppliers into subcontractors

It depends on how quickly the demand for electric cars increases. The supply of batteries is growing. There is mbadive overcapacity, but new companies around the world have entered the oversaturated market, according to a study by Beryll Consulting. By 2021, one-third more batteries will be produced than the needs of the auto industry. Even after 2025, overproduction is predictable

Is battery cell construction cost-effective? Are jobs created?

"The crop margins are low, so there is not much profit to be made." The raw materials are expensive, "says Möller." Because of the price of electricity, the production of cells in Germany "would be conceivable only if the plant was exempted from the EEG surcharge and subsidized," says Neuhausen.Daimler and the chemical company Evonik had tried it in the Saxon Kamenz, but gave up Northvolt is currently building a cell factory with Siemens in Sweden, with electricity costing one-tenth of the German price, so the plant is competitive, said Northvolt's Peter Carlsson, with 2,500 employees needed to build 400 000 electric cars a year.

Why a cell factory in Germany?

"If millions of e-cars are built in five years, one needs cell factories in Europe" says Neuhausen. an e-car weighs one Emi-ton.The transportation of fuel cells is complex and expensive, from Asia to Germany, it takes by boat for a month – just-in-time delivery is not guaranteed.

Why German builders and suppliers are not present?

Years ago, battery production was also "driven out of the yard" for environmental reasons, says Wechsler. Asian electronics companies entered electrochemistry because they needed battery cells for their cell phones and laptops. In the meantime, they have developed a lot of know-how: the right mixture of raw materials, the impeccable coating of aluminum foil and high-speed copper – "this is high technology" explains Möller

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"Lithium-ion batteries will be the measure of things for at least 20 years," says Möller. The German car manufacturer should understand their production in detail. "You do not need to set up a gigafactory right now." Automakers are currently investing a lot of money in electric cars and scanning – and the electrochemistry is not exactly their basic skill. But they still have all the options open, just like the Continental provider.

Maybe with the next generation of cells? Bosch, on the other hand, has withdrawn: 20 billion euros would be needed to achieve a competitive market share – and the question of whether this could ever be debatable