Spain is one of the largest car producers in the world. Located in the leading positions at European and world level, the Spanish industry has a lot to say in the new field of mobility. Many brands see our country as a perfect destination for production, but this support must be accompanied by government aid. A delicate situation of instability caused Volkswagen to announce last week a possible withdrawal from the Sagunto project, to which the Government has responded quickly by injecting more funds for the PERTE of electric vehicles.
At the beginning of last May, Volkswagen announced that Sagunto, in Valencia, was the place chosen to build the third of its six new large battery factories. The decision was accompanied by a strong capital investment that will leave more than 3,000 direct jobs in the area, in addition to several other thousands of indirect positions. Politicians, businessmen and citizens celebrated the decision of the German conglomerate in style and work to prepare the works quickly began.
With a few thousand tons of earth already moved, last Thursday Volkswagen caused a moment of institutional panic by threatening to withdraw the proposal if the central government did not help with national capital. The problem declared by the Germans is that the Ministry had promised them an investment of approximately 700 million while in the budgets of the PERTE of electric vehicles only an injection of around 300 or 350 million euros was collected. Without public collaboration, the battery factory would not be carried out.
Moncloa and the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism quickly got down to work to add hundreds of millions to the PERTE_VEC program (Strategic Project for the Recovery and Economic Transformation of the Electric and Connected Vehicle). The new public investment is 877.2 million euros with which it is expected to mobilize a total investment worth 2,250 million euros in the sector, of which 90% will be advanced to the beneficiaries. With the resolution already approved by the express route, Volkswagen sees its demands met and everyone hopes that they return to the task of construction.
The Sagunto battery plant will be the third of the six proposals for Europe. Volkswagen aspires to manufacture large quantities of batteries in the Valencian center. With 40 GWh of annual capacity, production should start at the beginning of 2026, reaching its maximum working capacity just one year later. At the same time, at no time has Volkswagen jeopardized the rest of the plans for Spain. The Navarra and Martorell plants were not threatened by the suspension of the Sagunto project. All this will allow the peninsula to occupy a privileged position in the plans of one of the largest producers in the world.
