Europe’s battery and charging future: promise, pressure, progress

At the Drive Forward Conference in Helmond, the message was loud and clear: Europe must urgently scale its battery and charging ecosystem to meet climate goals and stay economically competitive. But as the two expert panels on Day 2 of the conference made evident, that journey is riddled with both promise and pressure.

From fragmented innovation to critical raw material dependencies, the panel on batteries pulled no punches. “We lack a strong battery ecosystem,” said Mustafa Amhaouh of Battery Competence Cluster NL. “It’s not that we don’t have strategies; we might have too many. The challenge is aligning them.”

While China has spent the past 30 years dominating battery manufacturing, Europe is only just laying the groundwork. Michiel van den Besselaar from Omron noted, “There are far too few machine manufacturers in Europe. We can’t build batteries at scale here yet. That’s the biggest problem.” Still, he remains hopeful. “We have amazing companies. If we act together as Europe, and apply our know-how from other industries, we can leapfrog.”

Europe’s secret sauce

A major theme was the potential for Europe to develop its own version of battery technology. Daniela Sordi of CarbonX emphasized that point: “We’ve developed a new anode material to replace graphite. Today, 95% of graphite comes from China; our technology can be produced from emulsion feedstock available here in Europe.”

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CarbonX is not alone. Axel Schönecker from E-Magy pointed to silicon as a game-changing anode material. “With silicon, you get 10 times the capacity and five times less CO₂ footprint. And the investment cost in production plants is much lower. We can scale in Europe.”

Yet, there’s a catch: “We need innovative battery manufacturers in Europe willing to take the leap with us,” Schönecker said. “Right now, we still have to go to Asia for market access.”

Amhaouh echoed that frustration. “We do have battery producers here, but most are Korean or Chinese companies building in Europe. That’s why we must set boundaries: if they build here, they must work with European supply chains.”

Despite the setback of Northvolt’s collapse, Amhaouh remained optimistic. “Apollo 1 caught fire, but we still landed on the moon with Apollo 11. We need to be bold and learn from failure.”

From urban mines to competitive advantage

Beyond new chemistries, circularity offers another key advantage. Janet Kes of ARN underlined the opportunity: “Only in the Netherlands, we have 250 million kilos of lithium-ion batteries lying around; that’s 80 million kilos of critical raw materials. It’s an urban mine.”

At the Drive Forward Conference, © Nick Bookelaar

With new EU regulations entering into force this year, compliance is becoming a driver of innovation. “If we can develop clean, energy-efficient recycling methods in Europe,” said Kes, “we’ll protect the environment and gain a competitive edge.”

To close the gap with Asia, Amhaouh laid out three action points: “First, build the value chain. Support startups now, not when they’re already successful. Second, make policy fit for execution. Third, let’s learn from our Asian partners, but set strategic boundaries.”

Charging the future

If batteries are the heart of decarbonized mobility, charging infrastructure is the circulatory system. The second panel, focused on charging solutions, tackled the elephant in the room: grid congestion.

“In the Netherlands, yes, grid congestion is a bottleneck,” said Roel Vissers from Milence. “But across Europe, we’ve already contracted 80 charging hubs and gotten the grid connections we need. The real issue is outdated regulations. Grid congestion is, in part, a paper problem.”

Milence is building a high-power network for electric trucks, including a 1.4 megawatt charger in Antwerp. “If the truck can handle it, it could be charged in 25 minutes. That’s the direction we’re heading.”

Swapping and cooling

Arthur van Mook from NIO presented an entirely different approach: battery swapping. “In three minutes, you drive in and out with a 90% charged battery. It’s fully automated. We already have ten swap stations in the Netherlands.”

With 20 batteries per station charging slowly, this model also helps balance the grid. “It becomes a semi-stationary battery. So we don’t burden the grid, and can even help stabilize it,” van Mook added.

Sophie Stigt from the student team InMotion presented yet another disruptive innovation: a fast-charging battery pack with integrated cell-level cooling. “We reached 10 to 80% charge in just four minutes. Our secret? Cooling between every single cell.” Though still a prototype, the project has caught industry attention and highlighted the region's untapped talent.

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Standardization vs. diversity

While Van Mook sees battery swapping scaling across passenger cars, Vissers is skeptical about trucks: “Truck batteries are integrated into the chassis. Standardization at that level would be tough. I don’t believe swapping is the way forward for heavy-duty.”

Yet the diversity of approaches is a strength, not a weakness. As Amhaouh said, “We don’t need to bet on one horse. The question is: how do we bring all these innovations together into one ecosystem?”

That ecosystem, experts agreed, must be European by design, integrating circularity, manufacturing, grid resilience, and daring innovation. It won’t be easy. But as the Drive Forward panels showed, the pieces are there. Now it’s about connecting them with speed and intent.