Arkema S.A. (Colombes, France) is continuing to invest in the battery value chain and recently announced a €10 million expansion project for its Global Battery Center of Excellence located in Oullins-Pierre-Bénite, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of France.
This investment reflects the Group’s strategy of continuously strengthening its research capabilities in advanced materials for batteries within its global network of R&D laboratories covering the entire battery value chain.
Following the inauguration in Normandy in September 2025 of a laboratory dedicated to solvent-free battery electrode manufacturing, as well as several investments in Asia and the Americas, this expansion further strengthens a particularly dense global R&D network that combines the expertise developed in France with that of the Group’s research centers in China, South Korea, Japan, and the United States. Thanks to this international organization, Arkema (Colombes, France) is accelerating the development of innovative solutions capable of addressing the technological and industrial challenges of next-generation batteries.
Located at the heart of the Rhône-Alpes Research Center, the Battery Center of Excellence is entering a new phase of its development. Its footprint will be tripled and its research infrastructure will be modernized, including notably a significant increase in the digitalization of R&D activities. This expansion will consolidate the role of this French center as Arkema’s global reference platform for the development of advanced materials serving both current batteries and the next generations under development.
The project will enable the Group’s R&D teams to prepare for the future industrial standards of cell manufacturers and accelerate the integration of Arkema’s advanced materials into their production processes. By replicating their customers’ manufacturing conditions, researchers will be able to better anticipate implementation constraints and contribute to the development of more efficient batteries delivering greater energy density, faster charging times, and enhanced safety.
“This investment marks a major milestone in Arkema’s ambition to support the rapid evolution of the battery market. By strengthening our Battery Center of Excellence in France, we are equipping our global network and teams with state-of-the-art tools that will enable them to develop, in close collaboration with our customers, the materials that will contribute to the performance of tomorrow’s batteries.” — Armand Ajdari, Arkema’s Chief Technology Officer.