Could Chinese investment make Northern France a battery producing powerhouse?

On a blisteringly cold and blustery January day in Northern France, Ayumi Kurose zipped up his jacket, threw on a reflective vest and helmet, and strapped on steel-toed boots. He had a trek ahead of him, traversing sections of an 180,000-square-meter plot of land until he made it inside a vast building still under construction.

"Here is what we call the B Zone," he told CGTN proudly. "This is a place to form the cells." Those cells, once the building is completed, will be the building blocks of an electric vehicle battery.

Kurose is the general manager and project director overseeing the construction of Envision AESC's gigafactory in Douai, France. It's the Chinese company's first gigafactory in Europe.

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When phase one is completed in 2025, he said, the plant will churn out up to 200,000 car batteries a year - all destined for Renault. And if demand in Europe swells, there is ample space to expand four-fold.

"We think it will be very complicated to import everything from Asian countries. And that's why, when it comes to the supply chain and decarbonising transport, I think it's important to have the whole ecosystem in Europe to be able to respond to this extremely growing market," said Kurose.

All new cars sold in the European Union will have to be zero-emission by 2035. And 90 percent of all EV batteries will have to be produced within the bloc by the end of this decade. France has been offering billions of dollars worth of incentives to attract companies.‌

AESC is just one of four gigafactories that make up France's emerging Battery Valley, located in the northern part of the country. It is a poor, rural region that was once the epicenter of France's coal and steel industry, but France is hoping to transform it into an electric battery producing powerhouse and at the heart of Europe's green transition.

"It's a source of pride. In a region with Belgium, Germany and the United Kingdom, it's a way of putting France in the spotlight and that's something to be proud of," said one woman in downtown Douai who preferred not to give her name. "It will create a lot of jobs."

Automotive Cell Company (ACC) opened its gigafactory last year. The company is a joint venture between France's TotalEnergies, Germany's Mercedes-Benz and Stellantis. Taiwan's ProLogium and French startup Verkor have also chosen the region to build their production plants.

The four gigafactories are expected to create some 17,000 direct and indirect jobs. But beyond that, Battery Valley is meant to rival Asian suppliers who have long dominated the market, like China's CATL and BYD.

"I think that it's more than a question of price, it's a question of technological progress," said Philippe Beauchamps, the Vice President in charge of company relations and employment in the Hauts-de-France Region. "So it's not the company that makes the cheapest battery that will win the market, it's certainly the company that makes the most competitive battery."

It's a message that will need to resonate with the big car brands in the region - like Mercedes, Stellantis and Renault - if Battery Valley is to truly compete with cheaper and equally advanced technology from Asia - even as some of those companies set up right on Europe's shores.

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