16 December 2020 9:20 GMT Updated 16 December 2020 9:22 GMT More than 130 companies, research organisations and associations from the energy storage, utilities or other industrial sectors have set up the Batteries European Partnership Association (BEPA) that aims at fostering research to build up a competitive battery value chain across Europe within a decade. Green is the new black. Subscribe to Accelerate Get the market insight you need into the global oil & gas industry's energy transition – from the new newsletter from Upstream and Recharge. Sign up here A first statutory general assembly of the new group elected battery producer Saft’s innovations director Michael Lippert as its chairman, and chose representatives of German carmaker BMW and Italian renewables giant Enel among its executive board. Saft is a subsidiary of French oil major Total.