by Mathieu Rosemain

AIX-EN-PROVENCE (Reuters) – A “Chinese storm” threatens Europe’s booming electric vehicle industry, Renault’s chairman warned on Saturday, as China still dominates key raw materials for making batteries for cars. zero emission cars.

Beijing’s recent decision to restrict exports of gallium and germanium, two critical metals for semiconductors and electric vehicle power electronics, should serve as a wake-up call for European officials as it shows how Europe remains highly dependent on China and needs to invest heavily in building its own supply chain, Jean-Dominique Senard said in an interview with Reuters.

“When I talk about the Chinese storm, I am talking about the strong pressure today of imports of Chinese vehicles into Europe which is taking place as we speak,” he said.

“We are able to make electric vehicles, but we are fighting to ensure the security of our supplies,” he added, stressing that China’s strength is the result of years of investment. , whose response will amount to billions of euros.

Chinese export restrictions and the escalating technology war between China and the United States pose a risk of further disruptions and shortages in global logistics flows. Europe, caught between two fires, is also forced to study alternatives in the event of a dark scenario, continued Jean-Dominique Senard.

“If there is a real geopolitical crisis, hello the damage for battery factories which are powered only by products which today come from outside. That is the subject”, he said.

The development of alternative fuels – such as synthetic e-fuels or hydrogen – will play a crucial role in the event of sudden shortages of batteries if raw materials run out, he added.

“It is as a good industrial needy, protector of our society and our employees, but also perhaps of our customers, that we look at whether there are several alternatives to (…) not to paralyze the country because , for example, we would run out of batteries”, declared the president of Renault at the Economic Meetings of Aix.

(Mathieu Rosemain, Gilles Guillaume for the )

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