France embraces EV battery factories. It was a revelation for French President Emmanuel Macron.

Last July, the head of Taiwan’s ProLogium cut a credit card-sized solid-state battery in half in an elegant ballroom at Versailles. The tiny lamp it powered kept shining.

According to two persons at the meeting, Macron was impressed with the safety and endurance of the next-generation technology many carmakers expect to power electric vehicles (EVs). “We’ll make your life easier and help you set up shop here,” he told ProLogium’s CEO, Vincent Yang.

Ten months later, Macron and Yang announced in Dunkirk that ProLogium had chosen Dunkirk for its first EV battery gigafactory outside Taiwan over Germany and the Netherlands.

It is one of four gigafactories Macron thinks will turn the poor, former coal mining area near Belgium into a center for the EV battery industry, creating jobs and putting France at the forefront of Europe’s energy transformation. It happened on purpose.

Interviews with ten government officials and executives involved in the investment decisions show that France offered large subsidies to battery companies thanks to a loosening of EU state aid laws for green energy projects and Macron’s lobbying.

Since Macron became president in 2017, business tax cuts, hiring and firing reforms, and output tax reductions based on factory size influenced the decisions, according to the sources.

ProLogium, China’s Envision AESC, local startup Verkor, and the ACC consortium, which includes Mercedes (MBGn.DE) and Stellantis (STLAM.MI), are building gigafactories in the same area, and officials said France is courting Chinese EV giant BYD (002594. SZ) and Tesla (TSLA.O) to build car plants.

Interviews with ten government officials and executives involved in the investment decisions show that France offered large subsidies to battery companies thanks to a loosening of EU state aid laws for green energy projects and Macron’s lobbying.

Since Macron became president in 2017, business tax cuts, hiring and firing reforms, and output tax reductions based on factory size influenced the decisions, according to the sources.

ProLogium, China’s Envision AESC, local startup Verkor, and the ACC consortium, which includes Mercedes (MBGn.DE) and Stellantis (STLAM.MI), are building gigafactories in the same area, and officials said France is courting Chinese EV giant BYD (002594. SZ) and Tesla (TSLA.O) to build car plants.