EU battery directive’s focus on national energy mix is unfair disadvantage – German producers
Handelsblatt
The EU’s planned battery regulation that is aimed at ensuring clean production conditions for batteries in Europe continues to irk German companies, who complain that the current approach would unfairly privilege competitors abroad, business daily Handelsblatt reported. The new rules could determine that a country’s national power mix indicates how green production conditions are for domestic battery makers, irrespective of how these companies source their energy.
While many companies have already made contracts with renewable energy providers for powering their facilities, this would not be considered under the planned directive. Instead, it would directly benefit companies in countries with lower carbon emissions in their national power mix, for example in France. In a joint letter by leading German industry associations, representatives warned against “further disadvantages for industrial producers in Germany.”
Handelsblatt said industry representatives feared that the directive would leave Germany much worse off than France in key industry sectors, as the German power system’s climate impact could not yet compete with that of France’s largely nuclear-based system. Ripple-on effects of the directive could be worse credit ratings for German producers and suppliers and severely damage industrial investments in the country.
The directive has so far only been agreed in part to regulate questions regarding sourcing and recycling of raw materials. The EU Commission plans to settle questions regarding green production conditions by the end of the year. Besides Germany, battery producers in Poland, Hungary, or China could be negatively affected by the new regulation.
France, Germany, Poland, and other EU countries have made efforts in recent years to attract battery producers to their home markets in a bid to make the European car industry less dependent on foreign suppliers and to ensure a cleaner and more efficient production of this key energy transition technology.
