4 ms·

EU approves 3.2B euro state aid for battery research

21 points by ga-vu 7y ago

pier25 7y ago
Finally, some hope.
amelius 7y ago
That's a bargain compared to what patented tech costs.
paganel 7y ago
So I guess the big 3 Germans are over the "they laugh at you" phase and now they're in full "they fight you" mode. I think as recent as one year ago there still were German car executives that were touting their hard-won experience of making cars for 50+ years, not realizing that EVs are mostly batteries + accompanying software that happens to have some wheels attached . Making excellent inline-six engines or quite crazy V10 diesel engines has almost no connection to all that.
- pete762 7y ago
  The use cases for long lasting and energy dense batteries are much more diversified than just cars.
  - paganel 7y ago
    The "coincidence" between VW announcing that they'll go "all in" when it comes to EVs and this EU announcement is too big, of course this is meant to help the German (and partly the French) car manufacturers. When your industrial output suffers the biggest blow since 2009 [1] you have to be seen doing something (as a politician, I mean) in order not to let the bad people from AfD get a hold on the reins of power. [1] https://www.ft.com/content/a1a14220-1801-11ea-9ee4-11f260415385 https://www.ft.com/content/a1a14220-1801-11ea-9ee4-11f260415...
Proven 7y ago
Burn taxpayer money on state- or state-subsidized education Burn taxpayer money on state aid for high risk research Profit? Not yet! Introduce legislation to force the taxpayer to buy these crappy products and tax even more those who don't, to create a virtuous statist circle Profit!
sam_lowry_ 7y ago
Don't know for others, but Solvay S.A seems to be getting a fair share of the funds while being mostly a financial institution. It's been a few dozen years since they operated actual production plants.
- londons_explore 7y ago
  State aid is notoriously hard to distribute in an 'efficient' manner (ie. eventually providing a positive economic return on investment to the state). The EU is IMO even worse than your average state at it. They throw a lot of money away.
  - tonyedgecombe 7y ago
    The EU isn't funding it, the seven states involved are. The EU has quite strict rules around state aid to stop a race to the bottom amongst individual states. This ruling is making an exception to that.

21 points by ga-vu 7y ago

pier25 7y ago

Finally, some hope.

amelius 7y ago

That's a bargain compared to what patented tech costs.

paganel 7y ago

So I guess the big 3 Germans are over the "they laugh at you" phase and now they're in full "they fight you" mode. I think as recent as one year ago there still were German car executives that were touting their hard-won experience of making cars for 50+ years, not realizing that EVs are mostly batteries + accompanying software that happens to have some wheels attached . Making excellent inline-six engines or quite crazy V10 diesel engines has almost no connection to all that.

pete762 7y ago
The use cases for long lasting and energy dense batteries are much more diversified than just cars.
- paganel 7y ago
  The "coincidence" between VW announcing that they'll go "all in" when it comes to EVs and this EU announcement is too big, of course this is meant to help the German (and partly the French) car manufacturers. When your industrial output suffers the biggest blow since 2009 [1] you have to be seen doing something (as a politician, I mean) in order not to let the bad people from AfD get a hold on the reins of power. [1] https://www.ft.com/content/a1a14220-1801-11ea-9ee4-11f260415385 https://www.ft.com/content/a1a14220-1801-11ea-9ee4-11f260415...

Proven 7y ago

Burn taxpayer money on state- or state-subsidized education Burn taxpayer money on state aid for high risk research Profit? Not yet! Introduce legislation to force the taxpayer to buy these crappy products and tax even more those who don't, to create a virtuous statist circle Profit!

sam_lowry_ 7y ago

Don't know for others, but Solvay S.A seems to be getting a fair share of the funds while being mostly a financial institution. It's been a few dozen years since they operated actual production plants.

londons_explore 7y ago
State aid is notoriously hard to distribute in an 'efficient' manner (ie. eventually providing a positive economic return on investment to the state). The EU is IMO even worse than your average state at it. They throw a lot of money away.
- tonyedgecombe 7y ago
  The EU isn't funding it, the seven states involved are. The EU has quite strict rules around state aid to stop a race to the bottom amongst individual states. This ruling is making an exception to that.