Battery Chemicals And Supply Chain Resilience

Europe spends a lot of time talking about battery gigafactories.

We discuss cell chemistries, subsidy schemes, factory locations, and how many gigawatts of capacity will be built by when. All of that matters. But a part of the battery value chain rarely makes it into these conversations, even though it has a disproportionate impact on cost, risk, and credibility.

Battery chemicals.

Not cells or packs, but the solvents, electrolytes, and precursors that sit upstream of every cathode line and every factory budget. This is where a large share of capital intensity, operational complexity, and embedded emissions comes from.

This layer determines how expensive a factory really is once energy use, HSE requirements, and permitting are factored in. It determines how exposed “European” batteries remain to imports and geopolitical risk. And it determines how much CO₂ is embedded in every battery long before it leaves the factory gate.

You can build cell assembly plants in Europe and still import cost, emissions, and strategic vulnerability if this layer stays external.

Over the next few weeks, I will unpack this part of the battery story, using one very concrete industrial project as a reference point. Not as a promotion, but as a way to talk about how batteries are made, financed, and scaled in Europe.

If Europe gets the chemistry layer wrong, the gigafactory debate risks becoming an exercise in industrial theatre rather than industrial strategy.