In Douvrin, in the Pas-de-Calais, 2,500 ACC employees manufacture batteries for electric cars at a site presented as one of Europe's greatest hopes for the automotive industry. Nearly 50,000 battery modules were produced in 2025. The plant covers nearly 34 hectares. Vast warehouses concentrate production that has risen from the ground just a few steps from what was once a flagship of the French automotive industry.
For 2026, 300,000 modules are hoped for. This ramp-up is presented as the means of catching up with the lag accumulated against Chinese producers.
The conversion remains partial. Together with about fifteen other employees, a former worker now manufactures gearboxes for the group.
The teams assemble the batteries step by step in a plant that aims to compete with China, the market leader.
The site thus carries part of the hopes of the French automotive sector, which is engaged in the shift to electric vehicles even as Asian competition already dominates the battery market.
The juxtaposition of the two plants illustrates the difficulties of the industrial transition: the rise of batteries sits alongside the shutdown of an activity that long structured the area.
A few steps away, another industrial fate is unfolding. The historic internal-combustion engine plant ceased operations at the end of October.
The closure comes in a context in which production of internal-combustion engines is set to decline by 2030.