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bne June 2021 Central Europe I 43
The Czech Republic is pushing hard to secure the VW gigafactory. According to Industry Minister Jan Havlicek, the negotiations on the VW plant are linked to the previously announced project
of state-controlled energy group CEZ
to build a battery factory in northern Bohemia, as it could become a joint venture. "We are discussing it intensively, it is related to the CEZ gigafactory project, which I consider to be one of the priorities and a key investment in the coming years,” Havlicek said. “We must not miss this opportunity, we are also following the connection to lithium mining, although it is not a condition, but it would be an excellent chain.”
CEZ wants to use lithium from the Cinovec area in the Krusne Hory Mountains for the production of batteries. Cinovec is the largest lithium resource in Europe, and is also forecast to be one of the lowest-cost deposits
to exploit. European Metals, the Australian mining group, is currently preparing a project to start mining.
Czechia could also become a source of high-purity manganese (HPM), which
is an essential input in nickel-manga- nese-cobalt (NMC) batteries, which
are increasingly in demand for EVs. Canada’s Euro Manganese expects to make a decision next year on launching a project in Chvaletice in the Pardubice region, which entails re-processing Europe’s largest manganese deposit, contained in historic mine tailings. By processing these tailings, Euro Manga- nese could produce an estimated 49,000 tonnes per year (tpy) of HPM, half EU’s requirements by 2025.
The shift into electromobility and battery technology also has the potential to create other spin-offs. But the EV industry complains that it has yet to get much help from the government. Incentives are far from generous – the state currently offers them only to businesses to purchase electric cars – and the roll-out of charging stations has been very slow. In 2020, the country recorded 808 charging stations, though there are now innovative plans
to convert lamp posts in Prague into charging stations, which could add 400 to those numbers over the next two years.
Sales are nevertheless rising rapidly from a low base. While in 2019 there were only 756 new battery electric cars registered in the country, in 2020 this number amounted to 3,262 cars. Sales of plug-in hybrid cars in Czechia also expanded at a similar pace: in 2019, there were less than 500 sold, while in 2020 their sales reached 1,978. In terms of the total fleet of registered passenger electric cars, this amounted to 7,103 cars, or almost 10,000 when plug-in hybrids are included.
Slovakia
Slovakia, the biggest producer of cars per capita in the world, has 15 electric or hybrid models in production, with VW’s Bratislava plant producing the electric e-Up! since 2013. The country’s Kia (South Korea) and PSA (France) plants also produce electric models and the French manufacturer plans to assemble batteries as well.
Slovakia is also in the running for VW’s gigafactory, and domestic firm InoBat Auto aims to build a 10 GWh plant
by 2024 in conjunction with Wildcat Discovery Technologies of the US.
Yet the country is still just forming its electromobility strategy. At the end of 2018, the Slovak Ministry of Economy proposed an Electromobility Action Plan for 2019- 2020, including the provision of financial support for purchasing
an electric car or plug-in hybrids and building a network of an additional 1,500 charging stations by 2025.
"Slovakia does not have a clear idea of how it will fulfil its obligations in the area of electromobility development and infrastructure for alternative fuels," said President of the Association of
the Automotive Industry of the Slovak Republic Alexander Matusek.
Consequently, like Czechia, Slovakia lags behind Western European countries in sales of battery EVs – just 918 were sold last year – and in building charging stations. According to the 2020 Progress report of EAMA, the country has 649 charging points.
Poland
Poland is home to factories of Fiat, Opel and Volkswagen, but none of these makers is currently producing EVs.
Poland has, however, ambitions plans of its own. The production of Poland’s first domestically manufactured EV, Izera, in the southern town of Jaworzno in the industrial and mining region of Upper Silesia is expected to launch in 2024, ElectroMobility Poland (EMP), the state- owned company responsible for the project, said in December.
But even if Poland does not (yet) make any e-cars on its own, it has become
the market’s key player via covering some 30% of Europe’s demand for e-car batteries. That is thanks to the 20-GWh e-car battery factory – the largest in Europe – operated by Korea’s LG Energy Solutions in Kobierzyce near Wroclaw
in the south-western part of the country. Lithium-ion batteries now represent
2% of Poland’s total exports and are the largest single item, amounting to as much as a forecast €5bn this year.
LG Energy Solutions is planning to expand the plant at a cost of €300mn so that it will become the world’s largest, making 100 GWh worth of lithium-ion batteries for cars a year, 60% of Europe’s current demand.
LG is not the only manufacturer choosing Poland to make lithium-ion car batteries or related products. Belgium's Umicore is planning to build a battery component factory in central Poland and another one in Radzikowice in the south-west.
Yet Poland still lags Western Europe in terms of its charging network, having only 1,364 charging points compared with over 33,000 in Germany. Its incentives are also far less generous, although a new scheme is meant to come into operation this year.
Consequently, Poland’s electric car market is still very small. Sales of pure electric cars were just 3,683, admittedly a huge jump of 147% versus 2019
but still an insignificant portion of
the market.
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