
French battery startup Verkor is to build its first Gigafactory in the port city of Dunkirk (Hauts de France).
First delivery of low-carbon high performance batteries for electric vehicles is scheduled for July 2025. The plant will have a manufacturing capacity of 16 GWh rising to 50 GWh by 2030.
The company looked at 40 sites in France, Spain and Italy. Spanning more than 150 hectares, the site will meet growing demand from European and international car manufacturers and create up to 1,200 direct jobs and more than 3,000 indirect jobs in a battery ecosystem in the area.
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Once operational, the Gigafactory will supply several customers, and most notably Renault Group after signing a strategic partnership with Verkor last summer.
“We are eager now to work with our partners to unite all the winning conditions to build the best battery-cell factory in the world. Dunkirk is the best choice among many other great opportunities, and I really want to thank all the people in the territories, as well as our partners including Groupe IDEC, who supported us in this process,” said Benoit Lemaignan, CEO of Verkor.
Verkor and the French National Commission for Public Debate are now moving forward with the national consultation process for the site.
The construction of the Gigafactory is scheduled to begin in 2023. Research and development will continue to be based out of Grenoble where the construction of the Verkor Innovation Centre (VIC) is already under way. The innovations developed there will be a prelude to the manufacturing excellence of Verkor’s first Gigafactory.
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