Car Fule

The commune of Douai will have its ” gigafactory “! After weeks of rumors, Renault has finally confirmed a deal with the Chinese Envision AESC, which in 2019 took over the manufacture of Nissan batteries. A large battery factory will therefore be created in Douai, near the ElectriCity factory in Losange. In total, Envision estimates that it will be able to create 2,500 jobs on this site by 2030.

The plant will be operational from 2024, with an annual production of 9 GWh. By 2030, this capacity is expected to increase to 24 GWh. By comparison, the Tesla gigafactory in Nevada aims to produce 35 GWh of batteries. Envision will invest 2 billion euros to build this factory in Douai. The goal is to supply an increasingly electric Renault range: the brand estimates that electric will represent 90% of its sales in 2030. We are thinking in particular of future neo-retro electric city cars, the R4 and R5.

Future solid batteries with the startup Verkor

At the same time, Renault signed a partnership with la startup grenobloise Verkor, specialist in solid battery research. Renault takes a stake in the company with a 20% stake. The goal is to develop this famous technology of solid batteries, supposed to have a much better autonomy and can be recharged in a few minutes. Renault wants to equip its C-segment vehicles and above (electric Mégane, SUV, etc.) with these batteries, as well as future electric Alpines. Once this technology is mature, Verkor will create another gigafactory dedicated to these high-tech batteries around 2026. Objective: a production capacity set at 20 GWh by 2030. This will be 1,200 jobs that will be created.

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