First ACC gigafactory inaugurated in France; initial 13 GWh capacity
31 May 2023
Stellantis, TotalEnergies and Mercedes-Benz celebrated the inauguration of Automotive Cells Company’s (ACC) battery gigafactory in Billy-Berclau Douvrin, France—the first of three planned in Europe. ACC was founded by Stellantis and TotalEnergies/Saft in 2020; Mercedes-Benz became a partner in 2022.
With an initial production line capacity of 13 gigawatt-hours (GWh), rising to 40GWh by 2030, the ACC facility will deliver high-performance lithium-ion batteries with a minimal CO2 footprint.
The gigafactory will contribute to Stellantis’ goal of increasing battery manufacturing capacity to 250 GWh in Europe by 2030. Stellantis is securing approximately 400 GWh of capacity by 2030, supported by five gigafactories in Europe and North America and additional supply contracts.
Stellantis now has 24 BEVs in market and will nearly double that to 47 by the end of 2024. Stellantis targets having more than 75 BEVs globally and global BEV sales of 5 million by 2030. Today, Stellantis electric vehicles the Peugeot e-208 and Fiat New 500 are among the top five best-sellers in France and in the top 10 in Europe.
As battery chemistries continuously evolve, Stellantis is exploring all technologies to meet the diverse needs of its broad customer base and ensure clean, safe and affordable mobility. Promising innovative solutions such as Factorial’s solid-state battery technology and Lyten’s lithium-sulfur batteries may help enable enhanced vehicle performance and customer experience, creating a more sustainable electric vehicle experience for all.
Alongside battery production, Stellantis, ACC, the Union of Metallurgies Industries, the state and region are establishing the Battery Training Center of Douvrin as part of its upskilling and reskilling program. Through a 400-hour course, Stellantis employees will acquire new skills in battery manufacturing, helping the Hauts-de-France region compete in a sector that is crucial to the electrification transition. By 2025, at least 600 employees will join the battery manufacturing plant.
As part of the Dare Forward 2030 strategic plan, Stellantis announced plans of reaching 100% of the passenger car battery electric vehicle (BEV) sales mix in Europe and 50% of passenger car and light-duty truck BEV sales mix in the United States by 2030. Stellantis is on track to become a carbon net zero corporation, all scopes included, by 2038, with single-digit percentage compensation of the remaining emissions.
Here is a possibility for energy storage, including everything from mobile phones to solar storage:
https://www.umass.edu/news/article/engineers-umass-amherst-harvest-abundant-clean-energy-thin-air-247
' A team of engineers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst has recently shown that nearly any material can be turned into a device that continuously harvests electricity from humidity in the air. The secret lies in being able to pepper the material with nanopores less than 100 nanometers in diameter.'
And here is a different tech to get electricity from moisture in the air:
https://www.theengineer.co.uk/content/news/nus-team-creates-device-that-generates-electricity-from-air-moisture
(video in link)
' The voltage of the assembled device was tested to reach as high as 1.96V – higher than a commercial AA battery of about 1.5V – which is enough to power small electronic devices.'
Early days, of course, but exciting......
Posted by: Davemart | 31 May 2023 at 05:02 AM