Analysis claims €500 per EV could secure local production and cut reliance on foreign supply chains

Europe's EV battery cost gap with China – currently around 90 percent – could shrink to roughly 30 percent by 2030 if Brussels is willing to pay what campaigners call a "sovereignty premium."

That's the gist of a new analysis [PDF] from Transport & Environment (T&E), released ahead of the European Commission's delayed unveiling of the Industrial Accelerator Act, which argues Europe's battery headache isn't a lack of chemistry know-how, but rather a simple case of not having built enough yet.

If Brussels backs the sector properly and factories actually ramp up, the report reckons the EU-China cost gap could fall from 90 percent to about 30 percent by 2030, leaving a difference of roughly $14 per kilowatt-hour.

On a typical electric vehicle, that works out at an average €500 premium for a battery made in Europe rather than imported, a figure T&E frames not as a ...