Forecasting Battery Cell Production in Europe: A Risk Assessment Model

The increase in battery demand, particularly from the mobility sector, has resulted in a significant increase in the required production capacities. Europe is facing a large-scale expansion of production capacities. Currently, the battery cell demand in the region accounts for approximately 25% of g...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Tim Wicke, Lukas Weymann, Christoph Neef, Jens Tübke
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-02-01
Series:Batteries
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2313-0105/11/2/76
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1850081368640323584
author Tim Wicke
Lukas Weymann
Christoph Neef
Jens Tübke
author_facet Tim Wicke
Lukas Weymann
Christoph Neef
Jens Tübke
author_sort Tim Wicke
collection DOAJ
description The increase in battery demand, particularly from the mobility sector, has resulted in a significant increase in the required production capacities. Europe is facing a large-scale expansion of production capacities. Currently, the battery cell demand in the region accounts for approximately 25% of global demand, while only 10% of global production capacities are located there. This has motivated the announcement of a large number of production projects of over 2 TWh by 2030, which would mean overcapacity compared to projected European cell demand. In recent years, however, many of the announced Gigafactories have been delayed or cancelled. This paper aims to develop a risk assessment model for forecasting realistic future capacities for battery cell production in Europe. The proposed model combines an evaluation of industry announcements at the project level with a Monte Carlo simulation to translate the announced production projects into a European production capacity forecast. Therefore, the likelihood of implementation for individual projects is analysed within 11 topics (company, country and maturity related) and scenarios for future European production capacities are elaborated. Model validation indicates that from 54% to 75% of the announced capacities in Europe are likely to be realised (approx. 1.2 GWh–1.7 GWh by 2030). The majority of battery production projects announced in Europe are still in the planning phase (66%) with Germany, France, Scandinavia and Eastern Europe emerging as key regions. The modelling of production capacities predicts that dependency on cell imports to Europe will be reduced compared to today.
format Article
id doaj-art-7f7de4d0424d4f07827547c2d0ee75a1
institution DOAJ
issn 2313-0105
language English
publishDate 2025-02-01
publisher MDPI AG
record_format Article
series Batteries
spelling doaj-art-7f7de4d0424d4f07827547c2d0ee75a12025-08-20T02:44:44ZengMDPI AGBatteries2313-01052025-02-011127610.3390/batteries11020076Forecasting Battery Cell Production in Europe: A Risk Assessment ModelTim Wicke0Lukas Weymann1Christoph Neef2Jens Tübke3Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI, 76139 Karlsruhe, GermanyFraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI, 76139 Karlsruhe, GermanyFraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI, 76139 Karlsruhe, GermanyInstitute of Mechanical Process Engineering and Mechanics (MVM), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, 76131 Karlsruhe, GermanyThe increase in battery demand, particularly from the mobility sector, has resulted in a significant increase in the required production capacities. Europe is facing a large-scale expansion of production capacities. Currently, the battery cell demand in the region accounts for approximately 25% of global demand, while only 10% of global production capacities are located there. This has motivated the announcement of a large number of production projects of over 2 TWh by 2030, which would mean overcapacity compared to projected European cell demand. In recent years, however, many of the announced Gigafactories have been delayed or cancelled. This paper aims to develop a risk assessment model for forecasting realistic future capacities for battery cell production in Europe. The proposed model combines an evaluation of industry announcements at the project level with a Monte Carlo simulation to translate the announced production projects into a European production capacity forecast. Therefore, the likelihood of implementation for individual projects is analysed within 11 topics (company, country and maturity related) and scenarios for future European production capacities are elaborated. Model validation indicates that from 54% to 75% of the announced capacities in Europe are likely to be realised (approx. 1.2 GWh–1.7 GWh by 2030). The majority of battery production projects announced in Europe are still in the planning phase (66%) with Germany, France, Scandinavia and Eastern Europe emerging as key regions. The modelling of production capacities predicts that dependency on cell imports to Europe will be reduced compared to today.https://www.mdpi.com/2313-0105/11/2/76battery productionlithium-ion batteryEuropean battery industrymodellingrisk assessment
spellingShingle Tim Wicke
Lukas Weymann
Christoph Neef
Jens Tübke
Forecasting Battery Cell Production in Europe: A Risk Assessment Model
Batteries
battery production
lithium-ion battery
European battery industry
modelling
risk assessment
title Forecasting Battery Cell Production in Europe: A Risk Assessment Model
title_full Forecasting Battery Cell Production in Europe: A Risk Assessment Model
title_fullStr Forecasting Battery Cell Production in Europe: A Risk Assessment Model
title_full_unstemmed Forecasting Battery Cell Production in Europe: A Risk Assessment Model
title_short Forecasting Battery Cell Production in Europe: A Risk Assessment Model
title_sort forecasting battery cell production in europe a risk assessment model
topic battery production
lithium-ion battery
European battery industry
modelling
risk assessment
url https://www.mdpi.com/2313-0105/11/2/76
work_keys_str_mv AT timwicke forecastingbatterycellproductionineuropeariskassessmentmodel
AT lukasweymann forecastingbatterycellproductionineuropeariskassessmentmodel
AT christophneef forecastingbatterycellproductionineuropeariskassessmentmodel
AT jenstubke forecastingbatterycellproductionineuropeariskassessmentmodel