Can EU battery industry be competitive with China? Yes, sort of.

February was the best month for climate FOAKs since I started tracking them. A $1B battery contract. A nuclear core installed on schedule. A European steel FOAK crawling back from the brink. And one company generating more noise than any serious project — without a single credible update from the construction site. Monthly tracker inside.

The Transport & Environment article asked the right question: Can Europe go electric and remain sovereign? Their answer — it all depends on batteries — is correct. But the analysis stops where the real problem starts. The conversation in Brussels focuses on gigafactories, local content rules, and tariffs. These matter. But there is a layer of the battery value chain that nobody is talking about: the startups. Europe has genuine battery innovation. New cathode chemistries, novel electrolytes,...