New report highlights lead battery industry value to EU economy and society

Lead batteries are critical in a range of industries from vehicles including electric vehicles to renewables energy storage as well as proving back-up for critical data and telecoms systems. The significant contribution the industry makes to the continent’s economy supports a wide range of sectors.

ILA has worked with EUROBAT, the Association of European Automotive and Industrial Battery Manufacturers on a new report authored by EBP, a consulting firm specialising in state-of-the-art economic analysis and research to support planning and policy in multimodal transportation, regional development, energy, and infrastructure. For the first time this sets out the scale and significance of the lead battery value chain in Europe.

It found that the overall economic impact of the industry is worth EU €14.7 billion of value added or gross domestic product (GDP), supporting more than 184,000 EU jobs.

Almost 40% of the industry is made up of small and medium sized companies across the bloc.

The EBP report confirmed that new lead batteries – which are all recycled when collected in Europe – typically include up to 80% recycled content, making them a flagship example of the circular economy in action today.

Managing Director of the International Lead Association, Dr. Andy Bush says, “The contribution of Europe’s strategically autonomous lead battery industry has never been more significant as energy security becomes central to Europe’s economy and defence. We’re very pleased to have collaborated with EUROBAT and share a new resource which highlights our value to the European economy and its contribution to achieving carbon reduction goals.

“The EU is a centre of excellence for lead battery technology in manufacturing, innovation and end-of-life recycling and our respective memberships are key enablers for many downstream sectors including transportation, telecommunications, IT and information services.”

We hope that policymakers will find the report useful and continue to see the significant value of such a highly-skilled battery manufacturing and recycling infrastructure that still has a significant role to play in delivering a low carbon future for Europe’s economy and society.

Read the report ‘EBP 2021: Economic contribution of the European lead battery industry’, commissioned by ILA and EUROBAT here.