{"id":14022,"date":"2021-08-13T11:54:11","date_gmt":"2021-08-13T10:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/?p=14022"},"modified":"2021-08-13T11:55:58","modified_gmt":"2021-08-13T10:55:58","slug":"verkor-developing-biggest-gigafactory-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/verkor-developing-biggest-gigafactory-europe\/14022\/","title":{"rendered":"Verkor: developing the biggest gigafactory in Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"
Founded in July 2020, Verkor<\/a> is a French industrial company based in Grenoble which, faced with the rise in climate issues related to the mobility industry, is determined to make Europe a key player in the battery sector. Verkor is carrying out a large-scale industrialisation project for lithium-ion batteries. The first phase is the creation of the Verkor Innovation Centre (VIC), an R&D centre to optimise manufacturing processes. The second phase is the construction of the first Verkor gigafactory.<\/p>\n Verkor is backed by prominent shareholders; EIT InnoEnergy, Groupe IDEC, Schneider Electric, and Capgemini joined the adventure in the early days and today constitute the historic partners. Renault Group, EQT Ventures, Arkema, Tokai COBEX, and DEMETER came on board in July 2021. Together they bring us a set of skills and expertise across the value chain, allowing us to pursue our roadmap. With our partners, Verkor now has expertise across the whole battery value chain.<\/p>\n Our talented team and strong partners are carrying out a structuring project to consolidate the value chain. Today, our team comprises some 40 experts, from 14 different countries, and with diverse experiences in large industry groups, particularly in the battery and automotive industry. Our team has the skills to achieve our goals.<\/p>\n Out of the 16 GWh of our first gigafactory, we will be supplying 10 GWh to Renault Group, a company who has also taken a +20% share of Verkor. To accompany growth, we also rely on the strong experience of EQT Ventures, a fund that seeks to create European champions with strong ambitions.<\/p>\n We also benefit from the expertise of our strategic and technological partners, in particular, the solid European ecosystem of EIT InnoEnergy, the real estate development know-how of Groupe IDEC, the industrial production expertise of Schneider Electric, and the expertise of Capgemini in excellence manufacturing. Since July 2021, Verkor will also benefit from the industrial expertise of new shareholders Arkema, leader in high performance specialty materials, and Tokai COBEX, a key player in the field of high efficiency and low carbon anode materials. Demeter, a fund specialising in financing the energy transition, is also involved with its Ecological Transport Modernization Fund (FMET).<\/p>\n The local academic and industrial landscape, which includes Verkor, is in the midst of a powerful wave of innovation. Europe needs to be able to manufacture battery cells locally, thereby creating jobs and investment opportunities across the continent. According to the European Battery Alliance, set up by the European Commission in 2017, over \u20ac250bn will need to be invested in the European battery market<\/a> by 2025. In France alone, at least three gigafactories will need to be built by 2025 to meet growing market demand.<\/p>\nVerkor\u2019s expertise and the current landscape for battery manufacture<\/h3>\n