Developing loss prevention measures will be key to insuring Europe’s growing gigafactories, according to Laurent Richème, CUO Property, Construction & Energy for APAC & Europe, and Vincent Dumont, Risk Consultant Machinery Breakdown, at AXA XL.
In the north of France, a green transformation is underway. Four giant factories are under construction that will manufacture batteries for electric vehicles, helping to power Europe’s net-zero transition and auto manufacturing by 2050. Other so-called ‘gigafactories’ already exist or are planned in Germany, Poland, Hungary, Spain, Italy and the UK.
Demand for batteries is being driven by the growing popularity of electric vehicles: by 2035, every other car sold globally is expected to be electric. Keeping pace with this demand will require an almost doubling of the number of battery cell factories to around 400 by 2030, according to the Benchmark Gigafactory Assessment and McKinsey. Around 82% of current gigafactory capacity is located in China, but policies aimed at encouraging domestic production in the US and Europe would see this fall to 68% in 2030, according to Benchmark.
