We track investments across the battery, electric vehicles, green iron, solar and wind manufacturing value chains. Investments cover the construction of new facilities but also the expansion or conversion of existing sites, especially relevant for electric vehicle assembly lines. Investments are tracked from when they are first publicly announced, through when final investment decisions are made or construction begins (denoted as ‘ongoing’) and when projects are completed. Projects that are paused or cancelled are also recorded.
Germany has attracted the largest volume of investments since 2017, two-thirds of which are completed. Currently, the largest ongoing investments are being made into Hungary and Spain.
The dataset is constructed by inputting text data contained in company press releases and newspaper reports into a structured format. Each investment entry contains the following information: the physical location of the project, the chronological evolution of its investment status, details regarding the company or joint venture making the investment and manufacturing capacities that are realised by the investment. The dataset also contains a collection of project timelines describing key investment events linked to the primary text sources. The figure opposite plots European investments by the date on which they became ‘ongoing’, ie a final investment decision was taken.
We develop an estimation of the real level of clean technology investment entering the European economy. We do this by distributing ongoing and completed investments between the dates on which they begin and finish. This is the dates on which investments become ‘ongoing’ and ‘completed’. Within this timeframe, we divide investment sums evenly. For example, a €1.2 billion investment which began in February 2023 and finished in January 2024 would contribute €100 million to each of the 12 months during this period. We see that real battery investments have grown substantially since 2017. Electric vehicle investments grew until 2021 and have steadied since. Solar manufacturing investments are modest in comparison.
