Electric vehicle battery company Verkor obtained a loan of 1.3 billion euros last week. This amount is added to a previous fundraising of more than 2 billion euros, thus making it possible to finalize the financing of its Giga Factory based in Dunkirk.
A further step towards Made in France
The financing agreement of 1.3 billion euros was signed on Friday May 24 in Matignon, in the presence of the Minister of Industry, Roland Lescure. Founded in 2020, the company raised more than $2 billion last September to finance its Giga Factory project in the city of Dunkirk. Sixteen commercial banks and three public banks enabled the French start-up to secure more than 1.3 billion euros in green financing.
The opening of this Giga Factory, planned for 2025, will create 1,200 direct positions and 3,000 indirect positions in the next two years. Verkor’s objective is to help the French automobile industry achieve the production of two million electric cars in France by 2030.
A desire for reindustrialization
The company’s desire is obvious: to reindustrialize in France after many years of relocation.
In June 2023, the start-up inaugurated its Verkor Innovation Center in Grenoble, planning to produce 150 MWh of battery cells per year, intended in particular to equip Alpine’s future 100% electric C-Crossover GT.
The Verkor production site, with an area of 500,000 m², is expected to be operational in 2025 and will have an initial capacity of 16 GWh of lithium-ion cells per year. The co-founder and president of the company affirmed that this factory aims to become the European leader in the manufacturing of low-carbon batteries, making it possible to equip 300,000 electric vehicles.
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With this financing agreement, the Verkor company and its Verkor Innovation Center have secured total financing of more than 3 billion euros. In this sense, the brand wishes to “work towards the development of low-carbon battery cells designed to support European low-carbon objectives”. Its production capacity is expected to reach 50 GWh by 2030. With plans for new international installations, Verkor aims to become the most efficient GigaFactory in the world.
