To reduce its susceptibility to limited resources and diversify its portfolio, Stellantis stated on Friday that it is investing in the French company Tiamat, which is focused on producing large-scale electric vehicles using sodium–ion batteries.
The precise amount of the investment, which is a portion of Tiamat’s initial 150 million euro fundraising campaign, was not made public.
A battery facility in northern France would be built with some of the funding, Herve Beuffe, the chief executive of Tiamat, informed reporters.He said that this location, the fifth “gigafactory” in the area for the supply chain of electric vehicles, would initially have a capacity of 0.7 GWh by 2026 and might grow to 5 GWh by 2029.
Tiamat, which was founded in 2017 by the French State Institute for Scientific Research (CNRS), asserts that it can manufacture competitive batteries without lithium, a metal that is in great demand due to the global electrification boom. Instead, it uses sodium, which is significantly more plentiful.
Smaller vehicles will benefit from its batteries, which are less expensive but also have a lower mileage. According to Tiamat, its shortened reach can be made up for by their quicker charging speed.
“Part of our ambitions of the Dare Forward 2030 strategic plan that will see us reach carbon net zero by 2038 is examining new options for more affordable and sustainable batteries that use widely available raw materials,” stated Ned Curic, Director of Engineering and Technology at Stellantis.
