Brussels urged to pay 'sovereignty premium' to narrow China battery gap Europe's EV battery cost gap with China – currently around 90 percent – could shrink to roughly 30 percent by 2030 if Brussels is willing to pay what campaigners call a "sovereignty premium." That's the gist of a new analysis [PDF] from Transport & Environment (T&E), released ahead of the European Commission's delayed …
Who are these "campaigners" and who is paying them ?
And could somebody please point me to an official, proven report that demonstrates that we have the capacity to recycle batteries up to 95% ?
Batteries are toxic by nature. Making more is nice (well, except for the child labor and pollution that mining Lithium generates), but recycling them is mandatory when you wear a Green badge.
So where is that report ?
Right. And about half way though the doc they say "Labor and electricity contribute the most to the Germany-China cell production cost gap".
So this subsidy or "sovereignty premium" is going to have to stay as long as Labor and electricity remain far more expensive? Not a short term measure at all.
Why all the thumbs down on the OP? They are making the point that these things aren't recyclable, and where is that in the report? (Spoiler alert: it's not)
Because criticising EVs is not Politically CorrectTM at this point in time.
In twenty years or so, when we are facing the consequences of having polluted our water sources because of the unrecycled poisons of dead batteries buried under mounds of earth, then these people are going to have to face the difference between their goal (of which I approve entirely) and the reality (which they seem to willfully ignore).
recycling batteries is generally much less polluting and cheaper than making new batteries.
That being said, not all batteries can be recycled profitably -- China's LFP for instance is cheaper to make, but expensive to recycle because it's more energy intensive and there isn't a lot of valuable metals recovered.
"Brussels" doesn't actually pay for anything. It's all got to be funded by the people of the EU, which means higher taxes. This is to compensate for China having far worse environmental protections, slave labour or child labour and much cheaper electricity, because they are still mostly burning coal. Oh, and far lower bureaucracy. Economics of scale also come into it, which is what this report seems to suggest is the whole problem.
Basically the people of the EU are going to have to pay a green tax to artificially compete with China. Or am I missing something?
China is already on a path to replace fossil fuels with renewables, and increasingly so:
https://e360.yale.edu/digest/china-emissions-2025#:~:text=Emissions%20from%20energy%20and%20industry,for%20most%20of%20the%20growth.
" Emissions from energy and industry dropped by 0.3 percent in 2025, while consumption of energy rose by 3.5 percent, according to official statistics. Last year, renewables supplied 40 percent of power in China, up from 37 percent the previous year, with solar accounting for most of the growth."
That was last year, 2026 the percentage of renewables will be even higher.
At the same time, another unnamed country voted for "Drill, baby, drill" on essentially any piece of land including national parks.
Easy to talk about unit costs with a bunch of if's / but's / likely's / maybe's, and easy to spend other people's money - no mention of sinking the up front capital costs to get production in volume actually rolling, which won't happen unless those businesses get a guarantee on their investment, and of course no mention of the fact that neither China nor the US would take any onshoring attempt lying down, they would react and support their own businesses further if necessary.
Nice idea, never going to happen...
It is a great idea, until you know about the field.
The Chinese have better technology, and amazing integration, plus all the processes happen there.
€500 per car battery is not even close to make them in Europe.
They cost less than half in China and are better.
So we would need like 3000e per car battery for parity.
Of course, given to the campaigners that can't compete.
Not a terrible idea, because due to taxes we would recoup the cost, but maybe they should have invested for decades before?
Subsidies are virtually never the right answer and they are rarely recouped. In fact, the current use of tariffs on Chinese batteries, vehicles, etc. is one of the better approaches, at least in the short term, to deal with Chinese subsidies of the products.
As you say, China is now a world-leader in the technology, so it might make more sense simply to buy their products. Or, do what China did 20 years ago, and license the production process, because a collapse of the Chinese model is possible giving the high subsidies given to manufacturers by heavily endebted local governments.
>> it has to tie public money to real local production.
Let me guess. It's another socialise the costs, but at the top there will be some oligarchs with their noses deep in the trough.
And as this is the EU, where would these battery plants be built? It must be France, the French would say. We have efficiency, the Germans would say. Poland, the Poles would say.
Just checked a used car, VW with the usual VW problem (since probably 30+years ago) so I'm freshly annoyed :)
My close to 30years old Toyota (with a much cheaper trim level) has no issues with doors/ceiling. I should contact VW and offer to donate my old car so they can study it and perhaps find out the secret. /s
Putting used EV batteries in landfills is unsustainable. Driving hydrocarbon-powered cars into infinity is unsustainable, too.
The previous European initiatives were stopped by Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, offering subsidies that Europe could not match. So Trump gave new room for European hosting of battery related technologies. But it's not just building factories. Technologies and competencies must be brought up to state-of-the art and beyond, and in parallel. Pilot installations will be needed - again in parallel. So Poland, Germany, France, Sweden: They can all have their systems - competing and collaborating (similar to what we have seen (fined by the EU) with heavy vehicles).
Recycling: With EVs taking over, recycling must be an integral part of the system. Used batteries must be decharged, fluorine and solvents must be safely removed. Graphite, metal oxides, battery casings, lithium -it's a diverse mix of manual work and, disassembling of chemistries including purification for reuse. This is industrial work. High-level engineering is required for design of desirable chemistries of new batteries, depending on the use. Reverse engineering of Chinese state-of-the art, and building an industrial workforce - to me it looks very interesting.
These initiatives should IMO be welcomed. It's a challenge - it has potential as a breakthrough for sustainable technologies in Europe.
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