France, Germany to support battery cell consortium including PSA, Saft

BERLIN (Reuters)-
France and Germany have asked the European Commission to approve state subsidies for multinationals.
A German official said Monday that a consortium of border batteries, including car maker PSA and its German subsidiary Opel and French battery maker Saft.
The two countries have designated 1.
7 billion euros ($1. 9 billion)
Support the company Alliance to help reduce the dependence of European automakers on Asian suppliers and protect jobs at risk from internal combustion engines.
The Ministry of Economy of the two countries issued a letter of intent to the EU executive body for its provisional approval
A spokeswoman for the German Ministry of Economy said that in the absence of funds for the planned state.
\"We are now waiting for the green light from Brussels,\" the spokeswoman said . \" She confirmed earlier reports from the FAZ newspaper.
German economic minister Peter Altmaier will meet with French Foreign Minister Bruno Le Maire in Paris on Thursday to discuss the matter with the aim of further establishing batteries
FAZ reports that the PSA/Saft alliance plans to transform an Opel plant in the western city of kaiserslauten near the French border into a battery production base.
Among the more than 30 companies that have applied for state funding from the German ministry of economy, including automakers Volkswagen and BMW, as well as German battery maker valta and Swedish battery manufacturing startup nosiv. Saft, a 100-
Total, a French energy company, has a long history of producing a range of batteries for industrial applications.
It has teamed up with Siemens of the German industrial group, Manz of electronic components experts, Solvay of Belgian chemicals group and Umicore of Belgian materials Group to develop a new generation of electric vehicle batteries. (
Report by Michael Nienaber;
Editor Thomas Seythal and Kristen Donovan)