German car manufacturer Volkswagen AG and its partners will invest 10 billion euros ($10.6 billion) to make electric vehicles and batteries in SpainCEO said on Thursday Herbert Diesssome 3,000 million euros more than what had been committed before.
The company has also announced a collaboration agreement with the largest electricity company in Spain, Iberdrolawhich will create a solar park to partially power the battery plant to be built in the municipality of Sagunto, near Valencia.
Iberdrola will invest 500 million euros in the electrification plan, its CEO told the press, Ignacio Sanchez Galanwithout giving further details.
volkswagen had already announced in March an investment plan of 7,000 million euros to build a battery plant and produce electric vehicles at its two existing car factories in Spain, but that figure has now risen to 10 billion with the addition of new partners, the chief executive said. Herbert Diess.
“We will electrify the second largest car producer in Europe (Spain) with a new battery gigafactory and the production of electric cars in two plants,” Diess said at an event in Sagunto, adding that the plan was to create “a complete ecosystem of suppliers, from the extraction of lithium, to the assembly of the batteries”.
Diess visited the land where the factory will be built together with the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sanchez.
The German automaker aims to start series production of the 40-gigawatt-hour (GWh) plant in 2026.
Spain, the largest car manufacturer in Europe after Germanylaunched last month a bidding process for some 3,000 million euros in loans and subsidies to promote the production of electric vehicles (GO). Volkswagen and its Spanish unit SEAT have submitted an offer.
This year the winners of the PERTE funds will be chosen, as the program is known, made up mostly of aid funds from the European Union.
The company said it will invest 3,000 million euros in the Sagunto plant, another 3,000 million euros in four SEAT factories, including the one in Martorell, near Barcelonaand 1,000 million in Pamplona.