Beijing (AFP)

The Chinese Envision, which has suddenly announced this week colossal investments in Europe in car battery factories, is a discreet global heavyweight of renewable energies.

Starting next year, the company will build a factory at the Renault site in Douai (northern France) and invest up to 2 billion euros there over 10 years.

For the needs of another manufacturer taking the turn of the electric, Nissan, an additional factory will also see the light of day in the United Kingdom.

- Who is Envision?

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The group, based in Shanghai, was founded in 2007 by Lei Zhang, a Chinese entrepreneur sensitive to the challenges of global warming, upon his return from the United Kingdom.

While China is plagued by endemic pollution linked to its rapid economic growth, Mr. Zhang is betting on the potential of clean energy.

The trend is then towards solar panels that Beijing supports politically in order to provide the Asian giant with a photovoltaic sector.

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But Envision, whose name, "Yuanjing" in Mandarin, means "prospects", sets its sights on wind turbines, then considered inefficient.

The young company equips them with hundreds of sensors and manages to optimize their performance.

Today, the firm boasts of having marketed more than 12,500 wind turbines around the world, in China but also in India, France, Argentina and even Kazakhstan.

- Electric batteries -

Envision, which presents itself as a champion of renewable energies, has since greatly diversified its activities.

The company has a specific branch for automotive batteries, Envision AESC, headquartered in Japan.

It is this subsidiary which must be established in Douai.

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AESC was originally a branch of Nissan.

But the Japanese automaker separated from it in 2018 and sold it to the Shanghai group.

Today, Envision AESC equips nearly 600,000 electric vehicles around the world with batteries.

For the record, the group now plans to invest 450 million pounds (523 million euros) in the UK in a battery mega-factory for Nissan.

The site will run on renewable energies.

Envision also has a subsidiary in the United States, BEAM, specializing in rapid recharging.

- Digital and motor racing -

Envision designs software and technologies for energy management and conservation, renewable energies and carbon emissions reduction.

It counts in particular as a Microsoft partner.

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The Chinese are also present in Formula E, the electric version of F1, with their Envision Virgin Racing team.

Envision is established in the United States, Germany, Denmark and Singapore, where it has research and development centers.

At the same time, the firm continues to design smart wind turbines near Shanghai.

It hopes to become by next year the first company in China to achieve carbon neutrality, that is, to absorb as much as emit.

© 2021 AFP