EU launches Battery Booster Strategy to strengthen industry

The European Commission has announced a comprehensive Battery Booster Strategy to strengthen the EU battery value chain, including a new Battery Booster Facility and forthcoming Industrial Accelerator Act.

• Main actions and funding: The strategy launches a Battery Booster Facility mobilising EUR 1.5 billion in interest-free loans from the Innovation Fund for EU battery cell producers’ ramp‑up (first call in Q1 2026, first support in 2026), builds on EUR 1 billion in grants for EV battery cells and a EUR 200 million InvestEU guarantee top‑up (Dec 2024), allocates up to EUR 300 million for critical raw materials (lithium, cobalt, nickel, manganese, graphite), mobilises EUR 3 billion under the RESourceEU Action Plan within 12 months for CRM value chains, and plugs into a future European Competitiveness Fund (from 2028) for production ramp‑up.
• Background and structural measures: The strategy responds to global overcapacity (4000 GWh vs <2000 GWh demand in 2025), heavy foreign subsidies, and EU’s EUR 28 billion battery imports in 2024 (EUR 22 billion from China); it sets goals to cut single‑country raw material dependence by 30–50% by 2029, bans exports of waste Li‑ion batteries and black mass to non‑OECD from Dec 2026, introduces FDI conditionalities and use of Foreign Subsidies Regulation, prepares EU content requirements for EV and storage batteries via the Industrial Accelerator Act, mandates resilience criteria in EV support schemes from 1 January 2026 under the Net‑Zero Industry Act, and coordinates R&I and skills via Horizon Europe Batt4EU (EUR 925 million 2021–2027, EUR 382 million 2025–2027), the SET Plan, Net‑Zero Academies and a pilot Competitiveness Coordination Tool for the battery sector.