CATL, BYD, LG & Panasonic
Europe builds the car and imports the most expensive part of it.
A battery is roughly a third of the cost of an electric car, and almost every cell in a European-built EV comes from China, South Korea or Japan. CATL alone makes more than a third of the world's cells. Europe tried. Northvolt of Stockholm raised about $15 billion — the best-funded startup the continent has produced — and filed for bankruptcy in March 2025, the largest bankruptcy in modern Swedish industrial history. Its Skellefteå plant reached 1 GWh of a planned 16, BMW cancelled a $2bn contract, and roughly 4,000 people lost their jobs. That failure is why this card exists: the gap is not for want of trying, and it is the single most consequential one on this list.
What you are replacing (5)
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CATL ↗
Ningde. Over a third of global cell production.
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BYD ↗
Shenzhen. Makes both the cells and the cars.
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LG Energy Solution ↗
Seoul.
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Panasonic Energy ↗
Osaka. Tesla's supplier.
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Samsung SDI ↗
Yongin.
European alternatives (0)
Suggest another →There is no European alternative to this.
Not an unfinished card: we looked, and nothing in Europe does this at a scale you could actually switch to. It is here so the gap is visible — these are the places where something is missing rather than merely losing.
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