BRUSSELS, Dec. 3 (Xinhua) -- The European Commission and the European Investment Bank (EIB) formed a partnership to support investment in the EU's battery sector, the Commission said in a statement on Tuesday.
The partnership will offer one billion euros (1.05 billion U.S. dollars) of grants to support electric vehicle battery cell manufacturing via the EU's Innovation Fund and an additional 200 million euros of loan guarantees to the investment program from the same fund. The EIB plans to invest a further 1.8 billion euros in the wider battery value chain.
"Support will be directed to a wide range of battery technologies, such as developing advanced materials, components manufacturing, or innovative recycling techniques," the Commission said.
The project is a part of an investment plan of the Commission worth a total of 4.6 billion euros which will be used to boost net-zero technologies, electric vehicle battery cell manufacturing, and renewable hydrogen in the coming years.
The Innovation Fund, which supports Europe's transition to climate neutrality, has an estimated total budget of 40 billion euros from 2020 till 2030, stemming from the revenues of the EU emissions trading system which requires polluters to pay for their greenhouse gas emissions. The EU hopes to be climate-neutral by the year 2050. (1 euro = 1.05 U.S. dollar) ■