The European Commission has formally established the new Battery Booster Facility, providing up to €1.5 billion from EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) revenues in the Innovation Fund to help battery cell manufacturers ramp up production in Europe.
It is the first time the Commission is providing direct support in the form of interest-free loans. It has chosen loans over traditional grants “to encourage sound capital management, drive companies towards commercial viability faster and complement private sector investments.”
The maximum loan per project is €500 million. “Applications will be evaluated based on their technical and financial maturity, and their added value for the European economy,” the Commission stated.
The facility aims to catalyze private investment and accelerate industrial deployment to strengthen Europe’s industrial competitiveness and strategic autonomy in clean energy technologies.
Eligible projects must produce battery technology suitable for use in EVs, although buyers can use the products for other purposes. Production sites must be located within the European Economic Area (EEA) and have a minimum annual production capacity of 10 GWh.
The loan facility builds on a series of recent Innovation Fund initiatives to support the EU battery sector. In December 2024, the fund launched a €1-billion call for proposals for EV battery cell manufacturing (IF24 Battery) and presented a €200-million top-up from the Innovation Fund to the InvestEU guarantee to support investment in European battery manufacturing.
The Commission will launch a call for proposals during the fourth quarter of 2026, for around six weeks. The aim is for the first projects to receive initial payments before the end of the year.
“The Battery Booster Facility steps in at the most critical and capital-intensive phase of industrial scale-up and does so in a way that is financially sound,” said Wopke Hoekstra, Commissioner for Climate, Net Zero and Clean Growth. “It attracts private investment and drives companies towards full-scale production. This will support the European automotive industry to step up electric vehicle production with European batteries. Funded with the revenues from the Emission Trading System, it is turning the cost of emissions into the fuel for innovation.”
Source: European Commission
