To see the Verkor gigafactory, you have to drive to the end of the large seaport of Dunkirk (northern France), past the ArcelorMittal steelworks, along the aluminum production plant, then the container ship unloading dock (which could soon double in length), and turn your back on the land that will house two European pressurized reactors at Gravelines. A massive grey concrete parallelogram rises up in front of you. It stands behind the factory of the Belgian group Clarebout, which processes potatoes into French fries or dehydrated flakes.

"Massive" is no exaggeration. The Verkor plant, where future batteries for Renault's Alpine cars and FlexEVan utility vehicles will be assembled, sits on 80 hectares. "Construction began in 2023," explained David Lefranc, director of planning and environment for the port of Dunkirk, who was leading the tour. "It's the longest building in France." Verkor's infrastructure director Sylvain Paineau, one of the startup's six co-founders, insisted: "It's 18 times the size of Notre Dame de Paris."

In November 2023, there was nothing on the site but backfill. In December 2023 and January, the first precast concrete pillars arrived by special convoy. The machines are starting to be delivered to the plant which is divided into seven sections. One of the machines will be 100 meters long. Employees work nearby, in a temporary facility attached to the site, in the town of Bourbourg. A new roundabout has just opened and, since September 2, shuttle buses have been available. Like all public transport in Dunkirk, the ride is free of charge.

The factories in the port's three "large industrial zones" will have no parking facilities. "We need to reduce the number of kilometers traveled by private car," argued Patrice Vergriete, president of the Communauté Urbaine de Dunkerque (CUD) and outgoing transport minister. "We've set up park-and-ride facilities, offering a wide range of services, where people can leave their cars, and ride the rest of the way by bus, reducing their travel costs."

Sixteen thousand people currently work at the port. With the new battery-focused activities, another 20,000 people are expected in the long term. There will not only be the Verkor plant, but also, a little further away, the Taiwanese company ProLogium's gigafactory, which has set aside 140 hectares. ProLogium has completed its environmental study, the first phase of public consultation overseen by the Commission Nationale du Débat Public, and the public inquiry will close on October 3. ProLogium is hoping to obtain its building permit by the end of the year, with "the first stone to be laid in April 2025," according to a company spokesperson. The promised investment is €5.2 billion, with 3,000 direct jobs at stake. "If everyone came with their own car, we'd soon be stuck all the way to Grenoble," joked Paineau, referring to the traffic jams that plagued the northeastern city, where Verkor was founded and perfected its technology on a pilot production line.

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