Multiple funding streams support new battery research and manufacturing projects. During the 2014-2020 period, the EU budget provided at least €1.7 billion in grants and loan guarantees, which add to state aid of up to €6 billion between 2019 and 2021.
This considerable gap between demand for cell components and local supply signals growth opportunities in the battery component market. The global revenue pool of the core cell components is expected to continue growing by around 17 percent a year through 2030 (Exhibit 2).
Overall, since 2014, the EU budget provided at least €1.7 billion in grants and loan guarantees, which add to state aid of up to €6 billion to the European battery industry notified by member states and authorised by the Commission between 2019 and 2021.
At the same time, the European Commission has established a dedicated instrument under the Innovation Fund to support the battery value chain, allocating up to €3 billion. 6 This funding is targeted at enhancing the middle of the battery value chain, particularly cell production, and could stimulate investments in other parts of the value chain.
To help the EU become a global leader in sustainable battery production and use, in 2018 the Commission published a strategic action plan on batteries. It covers the different stages of the value chain, identifies a number of strategic goals and proposes a range of tools to achieve them.
84 Overall, we conclude that the Commission’s promotion of an EU industrial policy on batteries has been effective, despite shortcomings on monitoring, coordination and targeting, as well as the fact that access to raw materials remains a major strategic challenge for the EU’s battery value chain.