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BERLIN, June 18 (Reuters) – Germany will pay state aid to three different battery cell production consortiums for electric vehicles to reduce car manufacturers' dependence on Asian suppliers, said Germany's economy minister Peter Altmaier, Reuters.
This public support for battery production, the principle of which has been approved by the European Commission following a joint request from France and Germany, will be drawn from a fund with a billion euros.
Among the 30 companies that have applied for public funding from the German Ministry of the Economy are the manufacturers Volkswagen and BMW, the German battery manufacturer Varta and the Swedish start-up Northvolt.
France and Germany have already asked the European Commission to approve public support for a first cross-border consortium including the French group PSA, its German subsidiary Opel and the French battery manufacturer Saft, a subsidiary of Total.
"We are now at the point where we can say that there will probably not be a single consortium of battery cells but probably three," Altmaier said.
The German government will send all the necessary documents to the European Commission once the selection process has been completed, the Minister of Economy added, refusing to say which candidates had the best chance of obtaining public support.
Northvolt and Volkswagen announced a joint venture project this year to build a battery factory in Salzgitter, Germany.
Peter Altmaier has expressed the wish to obtain by the end of the year indications from the European Commission on the validation or not of the financing files of the selected consortia.
EU Energy Commissioner Maros Sefcovic said last month that the current Commission could go ahead before the end of its mandate in October. (Michael Nienaber Bertrand Boucey for French Service, edited by Catherine Mallebay-Vacqueur)
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