Europe’s battery ambitions are increasingly becoming a test of its broader industrial strategy
As Brussels seeks to strengthen competitiveness, reduce strategic dependencies and accelerate the clean transition, batteries have emerged as a critical benchmark for the bloc’s ability to turn political ambition into industrial capacity.
In this interview with Euractiv, Alain Coheur, president of the Consultative Commission on Industrial Change (CCMI), argues that Europe’s challenge lies in moving from policy design to implementation, ensuring that research, investment, supply chains and skills develop in parallel.
Coheur also discusses whether sodium-ion batteries could offer Europe a fresh industrial opportunity, why investment certainty has become a key bottleneck and what a failure to build a competitive battery industry would mean for Europe’s wider industrial ambitions.
EV: Europe has no shortage of battery strategies, yet industry repeatedly points to an execution gap, as highlighted during the debate. Why is the EU still better at designing industrial policies than building industries?
