French EV battery cell start-up Verkor will open its Verkor Innovation Centre (VIC) in Grenoble at the former Schneider Electric site by the summer of this year.

“A digital laboratory will allow for products to be innovated, designed and approved before their production is scaled up at other sites. An intelligent pilot line with a capacity of 50 to 150 megawatt-hours will produce cells for small batches and the first cells for the batteries of Renault vehicles. The VIC will be a proving ground for manufacturing digital innovations that will lead to cost savings and a new generation of IP (Intellectual Property),” the company says in a note sent to Kallanish.

The VIC will include a battery campus to train workers for new jobs in the battery electric vehicle (BEV) sector. Meanwhile, metal group Sibanye-Stillwater is investing in Verkor with the objective to boost the BEV industry in Europe and guarantee the procurement of certified raw materials necessary to produce batteries.

“The Verkor partnership complements our existing investments in the Keliber lithium project in Finland and the Sandouville hydro-metallurgical nickel processing facility in France, which are well placed to provide battery grade lithium-hydroxide and nickel products to the European market," Sibanye-Stillwater ceo Neal Froneman says in the note.

While research and development will be based in Grenoble, Verkor has chosen Dunkirk in northern France for its first gigafactory (see Kallanish passim). The plant will begin construction in 2023 and is scheduled to deliver its first batteries in 2025. It will supply several automakers, including Renault, which bought a 20% stake in the start-up last year to boost production of high-performance batteries for the C and high-end segments of the Renault and Alpine models. Verkor will supply Renault with an initial capacity of 10 GWh/year.