ACC, a European joint venture for manufacturing car batteries, is cancelling two of its three planned battery factories for Europe. This leaves only the French factory.
ACC stands for Automotive Cells Company and is a project by Stellantis, Mercedes-Benz, and Saft, which is in turn owned by Total. Together, the three wanted to prevent all EV batteries from coming from China. Therefore, ambitious plans were developed for the construction of at least three European gigafactories. These were to be built in France, Germany, and Italy, not entirely unexpected given the origins of the three companies involved.
However, the increase in demand for electric cars is disappointing. Plans for the Italian and German factories were previously postponed, but now, according to Reuters, it’s time for cancellation. The plans for the factories near Termoli in Italy and Kaiserslautern in Germany have been “permanently shelved,” according to ACC.
In ACC’s original plans, the three plants were each expected to have a capacity of around 40 GWh per year, divided into three “blocks” per plant. Reuters now reports a potential capacity of 13 and 15 GWh per “block” in France.
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