Europe is in danger of becoming overdependent on Chinese electric-car batteries, said a leading South Korean industry executive, as the continent struggles to agree on a coherent strategy to boost domestic production.
With European carmakers set to increase imports of cheap Chinese batteries amid a supply glut in China, analysts at UBS project that Chinese battery companies’ market share in the EU will increase from 30 per cent to 50 per cent between 2023 and 2027, while South Korean companies’ share will fall from 60 per cent to 40 per cent over the same period.
“Everybody I talk to in European governments is talking about ‘de-risking,’” Min-suk Sung, chief commercial officer of South Korean battery maker SK On, told the Financial Times.