Battery Industry Issues Warning: Trade Groups Call for Better Conditions
Inadequate mass production entrenches dependence on safety-critical infrastructure and jeopardizes the country's status as an industrial hub
Advertisement
Four industry associations (KLiB, VCI, VDMA, and ZVEI) are calling for systematic improvements to the framework conditions and a level playing field to ensure the development of the battery industry in Germany and Europe.
On the occasion of the topping-out ceremony for the Fraunhofer Research and Production Facility for Battery Cells (FFB) on July 13, 2026, the associations are calling on the federal government—and in particular the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWE)—to provide more targeted support for the development of the battery ecosystem through industrial policy. The announcement in the recently presented “Program for Recovery and Employment” to consistently promote the future-oriented battery cell manufacturing industry must now be followed by action.
Germany has created a competent and internationally competitive battery research landscape. Yet, despite many years of investment in research and development, innovative companies repeatedly fail to enter the market. This is not due to a lack of technical expertise or unfortunate circumstances.
All too often, the root causes are structural location deficiencies, inadequate conditions for scaling up, and an unambitious industrial policy. Companies need framework conditions that enable them to ramp up and scale production.
Building a new industry requires different policy tools than those used to stabilize existing structures. The battery industry needs framework conditions that enable new industries with innovative technologies to enter the mass market, so that research successes can be transformed into industrial value creation. If this does not happen, there is a risk that hard-won knowledge and valuable patents will flow out to other regions of the world. “Invented in Germany, lost to the world” must not become the new hallmark for batteries.
Batteries are a key technology of the 21st century. Global demand for batteries has grown by an average of 43 percent per year over the past five years. It is unacceptable that Germany is barely participating in this enormous growth in a key technology that is so important for the country’s economic standing. Germany has all the necessary ingredients: a well-developed research landscape, technologically advanced companies, and industries that demand batteries. What is needed now is an industrial policy strategy that brings these ingredients together and enables the German battery ecosystem to scale up within a European framework.
The federal government correctly identifies batteries as an essential key technology for Germany as a hub of innovation, both in the High-Tech Agenda for Germany (HTAD) and in the Program for Economic Recovery and Employment. It is now important that these innovation policy ambitions are also addressed through industrial policy. This is because battery innovations are decisive for competitiveness in electromobility as well as in critical infrastructure (energy supply, data centers, communications technology, etc.), power tools, rail technology, e-bikes, robotics, drones, and space technology. This dependence is particularly critical in defense technology. Here, control over supply chains is an absolute necessity to ensure Germany’s defense capability in the event of an emergency.
According to the associations, failing to control the technology and its supply chains cements dependencies on non-European actors and jeopardizes entire industrial sectors as well as Germany’s technological sovereignty.
Note: This article has been translated using a computer system without human intervention. LUMITOS offers these automatic translations to present a wider range of current news. Since this article has been translated with automatic translation, it is possible that it contains errors in vocabulary, syntax or grammar. The original article in German can be found here.
Other news from the department politics & laws
Most read news
More news from our other portals
See the theme worlds for related content
Topic World Battery Technology
The topic world Battery Technology combines relevant knowledge in a unique way. Here you will find everything about suppliers and their products, webinars, white papers, catalogs and brochures.
Topic World Battery Technology
The topic world Battery Technology combines relevant knowledge in a unique way. Here you will find everything about suppliers and their products, webinars, white papers, catalogs and brochures.