3 December 2024, the European Commission and the European Investment Bank (EIB) are announcing a new partnership to support investments in the EU’s battery manufacturing sector. This partnership will see a €200 million top-up (loan guarantee) to the InvestEU programme from the EU Innovation Fund. It comes in addition to €1 billion in grants to support electric vehicle battery cell manufacturing projects via the Innovation Fund, also announced today. As part of the new partnership, the EIB envisages investing a further €1.8 billion in the wider battery value chain. These joint efforts will result in €3 billion of public support in total for the development of a competitive and sustainable European battery industry.
The €200 million InvestEU guarantee top-up by the Innovation Fund will be directed to support innovative projects along the European battery manufacturing value chain to address financing challenges by enabling additional EIB venture debt operations over the next three years. In particular, the venture debt operations will:
- help companies to bridge the gap between the research and development phase and large-scale commercial deployment;
- reduce market failures;
- leverage public funding to mobilise private investment;
- contribute to the establishment of innovative and resilient supply chains for energy storage in Europe.
Support will be directed to a wide range of battery technologies, such as developing advanced materials, components manufacturing, or innovative recycling techniques. Funding prioritises technological innovations beyond basic cell or pack assembly and excludes mining and extraction activities. The EIB will conduct a periodic application process to evaluate whether an operation is eligible under the defined top-up criteria, as well as the project’s commercial and technical viability. Interested applicants can find more information on the EIB Venture debt webpage and apply through the EIB MyRequests portal.
For more information, please see here.