Electric cars: soon a fourth battery factory in France?

And four? While three gigafactories (the name given to battery production factories) projects have already been confirmed in France, the Taiwanese group ProLogium is also considering setting up an industrial site in France, a country that is on its “list short” and a decision is awaited. in mid-2023.

This was indicated to echoes the founder and CEO of the company, Vincent Yang, present at the Choose France summit this Monday in Versailles.

Four other countries in the race

ProLogium wants to build two gigafactories, with 50 to 60 GWh of annual capacity each, “enough to equip 500,000 to 750,000 electric cars,” specifies the economic newspaper. One will be built in the United States and the other in Europe, with production scheduled to begin in mid-2026.

The game is not yet won. Against France there are serious candidates, “Germany, United Kingdom, Poland and Holland”. With as criteria for this selection: “the proximity of future customers but also the costs of energy and labor, the availability of carbon-free energy as well as the subsidies offered”.

ProLogium, a future champion of solid batteries?

Strong point claimed by ProLogium, its advantage over its competitors in the next generation of batteries, called solid (or “solid state battery”), which would offer greater energy density and therefore much higher performance in terms of autonomy and runtime. recharge.

A pilot solid-state battery production line (40 MWh capacity) was installed in 2017 in Taiwan and ProLogium plans to open a first mass production line (3 GWh per year) no later than early 2023, also in Taiwan. .

Among ProLogium’s investors and customers we find the Mercedes-Benz group, but also the new Vietnamese manufacturer Vinfast or the Chinese electric champions, Aiways and Nio.

To finance these industrial projects outside of Asia to the tune of $3 billion, ProLogium is planning an initial public offering in 2024.