Regional economy minister warns against building a “battery factory in middle of nowhere”

The economy minister of Germany’s affluent southwestern region of Baden-Wurttemberg, Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut, warns against constructing a German battery cell factory “in the middle of nowhere” as this would make “no sense from an industry perspective.” Hoffmeister-Kraut says a battery factory should be built in the proximity of partner companies and large customers, and proposes Baden-Wurttemberg, home of car giant Daimler as well as of many successful small and medium sized companies, as a location. Federal economy minister Peter Altmaier had earlier suggested that a German battery factory could be built in the eastern region of Lusatia, which lacks a solid industrial base and is much more sparsely populated than Germany’s southern regions. “This is the last chance we’ll get in history to close the gap” between battery production in Germany and Asia, the minister says, adding that the country should not wait for breakthroughs in other storage technologies.

Read the interview in German here.

For background, read the article Chinese-German battery cell deal key step for mobility transition and the dossier Electricity storage is next feat for Germany’s energy transition.