Financial Times: These manufacturers are able to build a gigafactory — the industry term for the plants making cells used in EVs, AI data storage centres and power grid backup systems — in China for about a third of the cost and three times faster than building the same type of facility in Europe.
Despite those advantages, Chinese battery groups have now concluded that the pendulum of global sentiment has swung — perhaps permanently — towards protectionism and localisation, according to multiple industry executives, analysts and foreign government officials. This conclusion is forcing them to accelerate the creation of a complete battery supply chain outside China…