Slovakia must make batteries, says EU Commissioner

Slovakia must not miss the train that is starting in Europe under the name of the European Battery Alliance (EBA), Vice-President of the European Commission for Energy Union Maroš Šefčovič told TASR in Brussels on Tuesday, in preparation for the coming wave of electric vehicles. The day prior, the Slovak EU Commissioner chaired a high-level meeting to record the progress made within one year since the launch of the European Battery Alliance. "We've heard commitments from key players to speed up the work, and I was surprised that investments worth €100 billion in this sector have been procured over the past year," he said, adding that according to industry-specific data, it would be necessary to raise at least an additional €50 billion by 2022, if we want to produce the best world-class batteries in the EU. Batteries that are not only high-performance, but also environmentally friendly, less demanding on rare raw materials, recyclable and versatile so that in addition to powering vehicles, they would also be able to store surplus energy and act as a balancing cell, for example in the event of power outages. "I'm glad that the Slovak Battery Alliance has been founded at this time. The timing was right, but we must proceed quickly because the consortia that are being formed in Germany, France, Sweden and Poland are progressing very dynamically," said Šefčovič.