Recently, European automotive battery manufacturer ACC (Automotive Cells Company) announced the successful completion of a new round of major financing. The financing scale is approximately 4.4 billion euros (approximately 34 billion yuan), which is one of the largest financings in the history of the European automobile industry.
Banks participating in the financing include BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, ING, Intesa Sanpaolo, French public bank Bpifrance, Euler Hermes, and Italian Insurance Company SACE. Among them, BNP Paribas is ACC’s exclusive financial advisor.
ACC is a joint venture company established by Stellantis, French energy giant TotalEnergies, and Mercedes-Benz Group. It was officially established in 2020 and focuses on the research, development and production of power batteries. Headquartered in France and Germany. In addition, ACC has received support from the French and German governments totaling 1.3 billion euros.
Europe has long been the world's manufacturing hub for internal combustion engine vehicles, but with the rise of electric vehicles, it urgently needs to change its traditional strategy. Recently, European governments are racing to attract global automakers, hoping to shorten the supply chain distance of electric vehicle parts and bring them closer to major markets.
ACC will use the financing to build three super factories in France, Germany and Italy and open four new battery production lines. One of the production lines will be located in France, one in Kaiserslautern, Germany, and the other two in Termoli, Italy. Last year, the company established its first electric vehicle battery factory in Billy-Berclau in northern France.
The battery market size in Europe is expected to reach US$233.4 billion by the end of this year, and is expected to grow to US$438.4 billion in the next five years, with a compound annual growth rate of 13.44%. Electric vehicles are expected to become one of the major market segments of the lithium-ion battery industry, providing a huge impetus to the growth of the lithium-ion battery industry.
"With this world-class financial community supporting us, we see clear evidence of the confidence that is placed in the ACC project. We are resolutely looking to the future, with a view to achieving our objective of growing our production capacities," said Yann Vincent, Chief Executive Officer of ACC.