Achim Kampker on frustration, the long game in battery manufacturing – and why Europe needs to act now
Achim Kampker is a professor at RWTH Aachen University and chair of the PEM (Production Engineering of E-Mobility Components) research group. As co-inventor of the StreetScooter, he knows firsthand what it takes to move a technology from the lab to the real world. His new book “Zukunftsfrust – Zukunftsmut” – roughly translated as “Frustrated About the Future, Courageous About the Future” – has just been published. Part political manifesto, part strategic roadmap, it names the paralysis for what it is while still making the case for a fresh start. Battery News sat down with him to talk about what’s holding Europe back – and what it would take to change course.
Professor Kampker, your book’s title sounds like a contradiction – frustration and courage at the same time. Where do things stand right now?
My first book – Zukunftslust – was genuinely optimistic across the board. It made the case that technology can solve our biggest challenges. And when I talked to people about it, I heard a lot of agreement – but also a lot of frustration. The sense of being stuck, of feeling unable to get anything off the ground, of watching the world around you fail to move in the direction you’d hoped. Sometimes frustration with yourself, too – because these things always cut both ways. I didn’t want to ignore that. I didn’t want to just push on and say: let’s set all that aside and keep going with a smile. That’s not what I’m seeing out there.
And the courage?
That comes from step two: what do you do with it? That’s where personal responsibility comes in – taking action. The future – what happens tomorrow and the day after – is at least partly in our hands. Not entirely, but partly. That’s the core of what I’m trying to do: meet people where they are right now, and then look forward – at what we can actually shape together.
For the book, you spoke with a diverse group of people – Hildegard Müller, Rafael Laguna, Andreas Pinkwart, Boris Palmer. What do they have in common?
Altogether I spoke with 14 people from very different backgrounds. Two things stood out. First, many of them are genuinely dissatisfied with the status quo. But second – and this was crucial to me – none of them are people who just tear things down. They take an honest look at where we are, and then each of them has a forward-looking perspective that they actually live by. I didn’t want to talk to people who only demand that others step up. I wanted people who have already put something on the line themselves.
And what sets them apart from each other?
Their fields, their perspectives, their approaches. Boris Palmer as a politician who faces a lot of headwinds but is driven to push things forward. Hildegard Müller from the vantage point of industry associations and the automotive sector. Then entrepreneurs who have moved between academia and business, all the way to startup founders. I deliberately left the contradictions in – not everyone shares the same view. But what unites them all is this: they want to move forward. And they do.
Your book describes a paradox: technologically, almost anything seems possible – yet collectively we do too little, or the wrong things. What does that look like in the battery industry specifically?
Technologically, we’re still very strong – even if people often dismiss that. But look at battery technology: we started out enthusiastic, and then we missed the window anyway. That’s symptomatic. We often try to jump on trains that have already left the station. In the battery space, we spent years debating whether it even made sense, whether we shouldn’t just stick with the internal combustion engine. We tend to focus on every conceivable risk. That’s the European precautionary principle at work: we want every risk resolved before we move on to the next step.
And then the regulatory burden on top of that.
Exactly. The rules governing factory construction – environmental regulations that are, in principle, right and important – make factory construction several times more expensive in Germany. And they’re interpreted differently from state to state. Building a plant in Lower Saxony tells you nothing about whether you could build the same plant in Bavaria, even under similar site conditions. We end up standing in our own way.
And then the competition from Asia.
Which is very real. Especially in battery manufacturing – but also in mechanical and plant engineering, which has always been a core German strength – a serious competitor has emerged from China. One that has planned the entire value chain with strategic precision, advanced the underlying technologies, and above all, executed. We’re no longer the leader bringing a new technology to market and scaling it. We’re the challenger. That’s a role reversal we still need to fully internalize.
Northvolt was Europe’s great hope for battery cell manufacturing – and it failed. What does that tell us?
That it’s entirely normal for companies to fail when an industry is being built. That’s how markets work. In the process, know-how and IP get developed, and eventually someone comes along and says: I can use that. That can be a perfectly healthy process. The problem is that it’s not a German or European company stepping in to build on what’s already there – it’s an outside player. We keep allowing valuable know-how to leave Europe. It happens over and over with startups: they reach a certain scale and get acquired, because no one here is willing to put serious money on the table.
Even though the money exists.
Yes. There are plenty of healthy segments in industry and business where the capacity to invest is there. Committing significant capital – that’s point one. And stop looking to the government to do it. The logic of “the state lays the foundation and we chip in on top” doesn’t hold up over time. The state can provide support and cut red tape. But the willingness of industry itself to invest and stay the course over the long term – that has to be there.
What else needs to change at a structural level?
Ecosystems. That’s what we’re working hard on in Aachen, in close collaboration with Münster: startups need somewhere to plug in. The full battery system needs to exist – then they can contribute their piece. Getting a novel component to market isn’t enough on its own. You need everything around it for an investor to walk in and say: I believe in this. And then there’s the final step: thinking at a European scale. If we genuinely want independence in the supply chain – for critical infrastructure, for the defense sector – we also have to help build it up. We can’t keep saying: I’m in, but only once it’s cheaper, better, and already finished.
What is your key recommendation for decision-makers in the battery industry?
Batteries are in almost everything: humanoid robots, medical devices, the energy transition, mobility. If we let that core technology slip out of our hands, it’s a symbol of something larger – we’re letting our future slip away too. My message is: make smart decisions, then go all in. No more half-hearted measures. Others are moving faster. We need the courage to be first again – to try things, execute on them, and then scale. That’s what engineering is all about. The battery industry needs that now.
You experienced firsthand what’s possible when that mindset is present – with the StreetScooter. What made it work?
It was a constellation of people – that was the decisive factor. At the start, a small group with the drive to actually build something. They jumped in without waiting for funding to be lined up first. Then individual journalists who said: let’s give these guys a shot – and that’s how we ended up catching Angela Merkel’s attention at the IAA. And then Jürgen Gerdes from Deutsche Post, who said: I want to improve a process – make it more sustainable, but also build something that makes my delivery drivers’ jobs easier. No single person would have been enough. It took many people willing to take personal risks – with their reputations, with their careers. That’s what we need again. A new era of entrepreneurship, including in the battery space.
Is that realistic?
Absolutely. When we function as a team and rally around a shared vision, a great deal becomes possible. We have real strengths. If we pull in the same direction, it’s very realistic that Europe and Germany can get back to the front of the pack. This is not over. It’s not lost. But we have to shake off this culture of pessimism – the sense that everything is terrible and nothing works – without denying it. I accept that things aren’t going well right now. But that means it’s time to act.
This interview was conducted by the Battery News editorial team. A transcript is on file.
