The endeavors of the EU and the automotive industry to become independent of the East Asian suppliers for battery technology are taking on more concrete forms.
In Guben, Brandenburg, the German-Canadian company Rock Tech Lithium is now planning to build the first European lithium converter - a factory that uses the raw material to produce the lithium hydroxide required for battery production.
Carsten Germis
Business correspondent in Hamburg.
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"We are going to be the lithium partner of the automotive industry", said the CEO of Rock Tech, Dirk Harbecke, on Monday after buying an area in the industrial area of the Brandenburg town of Guben. The decision in favor of Guben was preceded by a search for a location across Europe. A total of up to 470 million euros will be invested in the site. Around 160 people should find work in the planned facility. The converter is scheduled to go into operation in 2024.
However, it is not yet entirely certain when the planned 24,000 tons of lithium hydroxide will be produced in Guben.
The final investment decision for production depends “, among other things, on ongoing discussions regarding funding that has already been applied for or additional funding to be applied for,” the company said in a statement.
The planned 24,000 tons of lithium hydroxide would be enough to equip around 500,000 electric cars with lithium-ion batteries.
Another location for electric drives in Brandenburg
The electric car manufacturer Tesla and the American battery manufacturer Microvast have also settled in Brandenburg. Brandenburg's Economics Minister Jörg Steinbach said that with Rock Tech Lithium the state would strengthen its position as a future center for electromobility. "In the future, the entire value chain will be at home in Brandenburg," he said: "From raw material processing to battery and cell production to electric car construction and battery recycling."
Harbecke also said that the goal of his company is to be the first company in the world to create a closed cycle for lithium. By 2030, around 50 percent of the raw materials should come from the recycling of old batteries. The basis of Harbeck's business strategy is the EU's battery initiative, according to which there should be enough battery factories by 2025 to produce battery cells for at least 7 million electric cars.
Harbecke, who controls around 20 percent of the Rock-Tech shares with his family, says: "Lithium is the central raw material for electromobility." That is why there must be a European lithium market in addition to battery cell production.
"To be used in batteries for electric cars, you need a very pure lithium product with a concentration of over 99 percent," says Harbecke.
Europe's auto industry should not be dependent on foreign suppliers
That is why lithium hydroxide production facilities are important "if Europe's auto industry does not want to become dependent on foreign suppliers as it does with semiconductors".
The Chinese recognized this early on.
They source lithium ores all over the world.
The raw material is processed exclusively in the People's Republic.
Rock Tech already operates two pilot plants - one in Australia, the other in Baden-Württemberg.
Harbecke described Guben as the ideal location for the factory.
He admitted, however, that funding opportunities also played “a decisive role” in Rock Tech's decision.
Due to the near end of lignite mining, Lusatia is an industrial region in upheaval.
Brandenburg's Economics Minister Steinbach therefore assessed Rock Tech's decision for the region as an “important sign for the people in the region” that the structural change is showing the first results.