Germany Backs European Battery Champion to Take on Tesla
- European Union may provide $2.6 billion to support initiative
- Bloc convening Oct. 11 industry meeting to discuss proposal
A Tesla Motors Inc. Powerwall unit sits inside a home in Monkton, Vermont.
Photographer: Ian Thomas Jansen-Lonnquist/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
The Europe Union’s biggest economy may be warming to the creation of bloc-wide battery consortium to take on the likes of Tesla Inc. and Panasonic Corp.
German industrial and automotive giants including BASF SE and BMW AG have been invited to a meeting in Brussels on Oct. 11 being led by the European Union’s top energy official, Maros Sefcovic, who has pledged as much as 2.2 billion euros ($2.6 billion) for battery development. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government welcomed the talks aimed at creating a European battery consortium, which was first reported by the Financial Times.