Europe In Danger Of Losing EV Battery Race, Says Court Of Auditors

According to a report released on Monday by the European Court of Auditors (ECA), Europe is in danger of losing the race to become a global battery powerhouse as access to raw materials continues to be a significant barrier, along with rising costs and intense competition.

The report issued a warning that the European Union might not succeed in achieving its climate goals because those efforts heavily rely on the adoption of electric vehicles, whose batteries are made up of a mixture of metals, including cobalt, nickel, and lithium.

Nearly one in five new cars registered in the EU in 2021, according to the ECA, the EU's independent external auditor, had an electrical plug. With approximately 30 million zero-emission vehicles anticipated to be on European roads by 2030 and the ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2035, demand is expected to soar.

The EU's plan, however, has not considered the bloc's capacity to meet this new battery demand.

"The EU wants to ensure its economic sovereignty by developing into a global battery powerhouse, but will it be successful? According to Annemie Turtelboom, who oversaw the ECA audit, the odds are not favourable.

We run the risk of either the EU failing to meet its emissions targets for 2035 or doing so by importing batteries from abroad, which would hurt European industry and be very expensive.

The raw material supply for the EU is heavily concentrated in a small number of nations with geopolitical risks that could lead to shortages. The ECA stated that the EU relied on imports on average 78% for five important materials.

The EU must avoid becoming dependent on batteries in the same way that it was with

The raw material supply for the EU is heavily concentrated in a small number of nations with geopolitical risks that could lead to shortages. The ECA stated that the EU relied on imports on average 78% for five important materials.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo provides about two thirds of the world's cobalt, China provides 40% of the world's natural graphite, and the EU is totally reliant on imported refined lithium. 76% of the world's battery production capacity is located in China.

Europe will require too much time for extraction. The largest lithium reserves in the EU are in Portugal, but production is not anticipated to begin until 2026.

Additionally, the ECA claimed that the EU's lack of cost-competitiveness is partly a result of high energy costs, the EU Commission's data being out-of-date and unfinished, and public funding being poorly coordinated and causing overlaps.