{"id":2944,"date":"2019-04-08T06:50:32","date_gmt":"2019-04-08T06:50:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/euromenaenergy.com\/?p=2944"},"modified":"2019-04-08T06:50:32","modified_gmt":"2019-04-08T06:50:32","slug":"total-china-battery-maker-team-up-in-latest-big-oil-shift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/?p=2944","title":{"rendered":"Total, China battery maker team up in latest Big Oil shift"},"content":{"rendered":"

Total SA\u00a0is tying up with China\u2019s Tianneng Group to build batteries, moving into mass production of electricity storage technology after\u00a0snapping upSaft Groupe SA in 2016.<\/p>\n

The joint venture will focus on making and selling advanced lithium-ion cells for electric vehicles, bikes and energy storage equipment in China and worldwide, Total said Thursday in a statement. The French company is among several oil and gas majors investing in the sector as governments clamp down on fossil fuels and carbon curbs tighten.<\/p>\n

Power storage could be a\u00a0lifeline\u00a0for Big Oil in the long term, offering a new revenue stream as the industry shifts toward less-polluting energy. Total\u00a0bought\u00a0battery maker Saft for 950 million euros ($1.07 billion) in 2016, while Royal Dutch Shell Plc\u00a0acquired\u00a0car-charging operator NewMotion a year later.<\/p>\n

Saft, which makes batteries for planes, trains, and military equipment such as missiles and night-vision googles, had so far avoided the mass market for cars for fear of being squeezed by Asian rivals benefiting from lower production costs and bigger demand.<\/p>\n

Chinese, Korean and Japanese manufacturers have taken the lead in batteries for electric vehicles by investing billions in so-called gigafactories to supply global carmakers that are developing low or zero-emission vehicles to meet increasingly stringent government anti-pollution rules.<\/p>\n

\n
The Total-Tianneng joint venture will manufacture cells at the Changxing Gigafactory, with potential capacity of 5.5 gigawatt-hours, according to the statement. Total will have a 40 percent stake in the venture, while Tianneng Group will hold the remaining shares. Saft\u2019s current capacity for lithium-ion batteries is about 400 megawatt-hours a year, a spokeswoman said.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The joint venture may be up and running within a year to work on new batteries that will be more competitive, a spokeswoman for Saft said.<\/p>\n

Total Chief Executive Officer Patrick Pouyanne had\u00a0complained\u00a0several times about China\u2019s protectionism in terms of batteries, and urged Europe to do the same if it wants to foster a similar industry on its soil.<\/p>\n

Germany and France\u00a0said\u00a0this year they will put up 1 billion euros and 750 million euros, respectively, in subsidies to co-finance building factories in their respective countries.<\/p>\n

Saft last year\u00a0teamed up\u00a0with German engineering giant Siemens AG and battery maker Manz AG as well as Belgian chemicals maker Solvay SA to develop next-generation batteries that would be cheaper, safer and more efficient.<\/p>\n

\u2014 With assistance by Amanda Jordan<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Total SA\u00a0is tying up with China\u2019s Tianneng Group to build batteries, moving into mass production of electricity storage technology after\u00a0snapping upSaft Groupe SA in 2016. The joint venture will focus on making…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2954,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[46,48,57,90,96,107,113,137,139,160,174,183,184,201,202,209,230,232,233,244,246,249,256,267,277,279,288],"class_list":["post-2944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-aramco","tag-athens","tag-baroudi","tag-democracy","tag-doha","tag-embargo","tag-energy-peace","tag-gas","tag-gazprom","tag-international-maritime-disputes","tag-lebanon","tag-maritime-boundaries-east-mediterranean","tag-maritime-disputes","tag-offshore","tag-oil","tag-opec","tag-poverty-alleviation","tag-putin","tag-qatar","tag-rosneft","tag-roudi","tag-russia","tag-saudi","tag-straddling-hydrocarbons-reserves","tag-total","tag-trump","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}