TotalEnergies & Stellantis Form Automotive Cells Company (ACC)

In 2020, a new partnership emerged in the form of a joint-venture to design and produce electric vehicle (EV) batteries. Led by TotalEnergies and Stellantis, the Automotive Cells Company (ACC) brought on a new partner, Mercedes-Benz, in 2021 to become an equal shareholder in the venture. To produce top-grade battery cells and modules, they agreed to increase industrial capacity to approximately 120 GWh by 2030.

According to the CEO of Saft (a subsidiary of TotalEnergies),

ACC is a joint venture between TotalEnergies and Stellantis to design and produce automotive batteries, and to become a leader in Europe and an international groundbreaker in its field.

Prior to co-establishing ACC, TotalEnergies’ electric mobility (e-mobility) strategy was laid out in 2019 with the goal to operate more than 150,000 EV charge points throughout European cities by 2025 — including 22,000 in Amsterdam, 3,000 in Antwerp, 1,700 in London, and 2,300 in Paris.

In addition, TotalEnergies has taken its commitments outside of the European continent by establishing joint ventures with China’s largest clean energy company, China Three Gorges (CTG), operator of the China Three Gorges Dam, to expand on initiatives for e-mobility in Asia.

The ACC seeks to ensure that battery design is efficient and that battery demand is met for EVs as well as other transport modes such as satellites, trains and planes. Research and Development (R&D) centers have been set up Bruges, France, to design the latest battery cell technologies, while a pilot line at Nersac, France, is being launched as a battery production site.

The ACC has been spearheaded under the backdrop of many automakers’ and energy companies’ push to become bigger players in EV markets by partnering with others for electric and sustainable mobility strategies.

This began in November 2020 with TotalEnergies’ acquisition of 2,000 EV charge points from Viessmann group of Charging Solution in Germany, giving it one of the most significant e-mobility markets in Europe.

The company then made a deal with Singapore’s Bollore Group in July 2021 to acquire more than 1,500 EV charge points, making TotalEnergies the owner and operator of Singapore’s largest EV charging network: Blue Charge.

After the deal was made, President of Marketing & Services at TotalEnergies said:

With this acquisition, TotalEnergies is pursuing its transformation and adds a new name on the list of global cities, such as Paris, Amsterdam, London and Brussels, where the Company is already developing its EV charge points installing and operating activities.

On 27 April 2022, ACC agreed to a supply agreement with Umicore — a Belgium-based global materials company — for the company’s offtake supply of next-generation high nickel cathode materials.

Upon signing the offtake agreement, ACC spokesperson, Yann Vincent, said:

With this important agreement, which secures the supply of a key component for the battery industry, ACC confirms its ambition to become a European leader for car batteries that allow clean and efficient mobility for all.

What’s more important is that the Umicore-supplied batteries will be recyled at the ACC’s testing facilities in France. This means that the companies are taking into consideration how to develop recycling methods and procedures for the future of EV batteries in manufacturing. This could have a positive effect on the future of EV market share and e-mobility trends.

Futhermore, the solid-state battery is a top concern for the future of EV production markets. ACC and ProLogium Technology signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to develop a solid-state battery for EVs on 19 October 2022.

This is another key agreement for ACC, as it seeks to overcome current obstables in the industrial supply chains of battery materials throughout Asia, Europe and the United States. The results of this partnership could lead to a potential breakthrough in how companies solve issues related to supply chain inefficiencies; therefore, getting EVs to market much faster.

On 28 October 2022, the European Union’s (EU) European Council and European Parliament passed an agreement to cut down on the sale of new diesel and gasoline vehicles by 2035, as part of the “zero-emission road mobility by 2035” plan. The plan seeks to cut CO2 emissions from new diesel and gasoline vehicles by 100% compared with 2021 levels.

This would effectively put a ban on new production and sales of diesel and gasoline vehicles that would reach such levels of CO2 emissions.

There are other regulations and exemptions in place to protect smaller automakers in the EU, though the agreement signaled a big win for large campaigning groups, such as Brussels-based Transport & Environment, who have been working toward a nations-wide ban on fossil-fuel vehicles in the EU.

According to Euronews, the deal to phase out diesel and gasoline vehicles by 2035 was made under the Fit for 55 framework to reduce green house gas (GHG) emissions by 55% by 2030.

After the deal was announced, many of the legislation’s biggest supporters within the EU establishment celebrated online with their own comments and praise.

Jan Huitema, a Dutch MEP, said:

With these targets, we create clarity for the car industry and stimulate innovation and investments for car manufacturers. In addition, purchasing and driving zero-emission cars will become cheaper for consumers.

Josef Síkela, minister of trade and industry of the Czech Republic, said:

The world is changing, and we must remain at the forefront of innovation. I believe we can take advantage of this technological transition. The envisaged timeline also makes the goals achievable for car manufacturers.

However, the most notable player in this scenario is the L’Association des constructeurs européens d’automobiles (ACEA). European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA)

The ACEA has been striving to get more producers and suppliers on the right path towad reducing GHG emissions throughout their supply chains, by investing in more renewable sources of energy production that promote the concept of “climate-neutral road transport.” The association has called on transport manufacturers operators, particularly for heavy trucks (trucking), to embrace the future of Zero-Emission Trucks.

In conclusion, these trends in EV battery supplies and production markets reveal certain kinds of patterns in how companies are collaborating to gain market share. On the one hand, creating industry partnerships, like the one described here with ACC, is critical to getting access to raw materials and much-needed results from R&D and testing.

On the other hand, regulations by government bodies and industry associations — in this case, the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association — are an important part of the strategic planning process.

In order for EV markets to gain share, regulations must be put in place that give those producers an edge over traditional automobile makers in a competitive global marketplace. That’s why R&D funds are crucial to the success of EVs going forward.

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