VALENCIA – Sagunto (Valencia) will house the new Volkswagen battery factory. The factory will employ 3,000 people from 2026. Furthermore, the factory in the province of Valencia involves an investment of €7 billion.
This was announced by Seat chairman Thomas Schmall on Wednesday. He confirmed the intention of the Volkswagen Group, the parent company, to install an electric battery factory in Sagunto, Valencia.
Related post: Spain still lags far behind in EU electric car sales
The car company is preparing an investment of €7 billion in Spain. With this, the construction of the new factory will start at the end of this year. Thereafter, according to the multinational, the Sagunto plant will start production in 2026. Consequently, Seat plans to employ 3,000 people and to play a key role in the “largest individual industrial investment in the history of Spain”.
“More than a hundred criteria”
The Volkswagen group confirmed its intention to invest in Sagunto at a press conference in Barcelona. Furthermore, the company has taken “over a hundred criteria” into account when determining the most suitable location. The multinational emphasised the easy access from the city of Valencia via the port facilities. From there, the connection to the factories of Martorell (Seat) and Pamplona (Volkswagen) are good.
Largest factory after the one in German
The electric battery plant will be “the largest after the one in Germany,” Schmall said. Moreover, he added that it will have a production capacity of 40 gigawatts per year. Choosing Sagunto excludes proposals from Catalonia, Aragon, Extremadura, the Basque Country, and Galicia to house the gigafactory.
“Best business news in half a century”
The president of the Generalitat Valenciana, Ximo Puig, welcomed the announcement. In this regard, he called it “the best business news in half a century”. Furthermore, he compared it to the arrival of Ford in Almussafes (Valencia) in 1976.
Related posts:
Spain receives 3 billion European emergency funds for electric mobility
