Electrifying Spain by creating a European Electric Vehicle Hub, building up a battery cell production and full, sustainable E-ecosystem: These are the goals of Volkswagen Group and SEAT for the Iberian Peninsula. Today, the Group declared its plan to apply to the Electric Vehicle PERTE program after the Spanish government announced to open the call for applications on April 1st, 2022. The ‘Future Fast Forward’ program would include a total investment of more than 7 billion euros together with external suppliers along the entire value chain of e-mobility. Furthermore, Volkswagen announced Valencia as the dedicated location for a new battery cell factory in Spain. All plans are still subject to final approvals, foremost the PERTE submission.

‘This project is highly important – for Volkswagen, for Spain, and for the whole of Europe. It’s our ambition to electrify Spain and we are willing to invest more than seven billion euros together with external suppliers for the electrification of our Martorell and Pamplona plants and the localization of the battery value chain in Valencia’, said Thomas Schmall, member of the Volkswagen AG Board of Management responsible for Technology and chairman of the SEAT S.A. Board of Directors.

‘Future Fast Forward’ has the potential to transform the Spanish automotive industry and democratize electric mobility across Europe. The more than 7 billion euros Volkswagen Group and SEAT S.A. would mobilize for Future: Fast Forward would represent the largest industrial investment in Spanish history’, said Wayne Griffith, president of SEAT.

Gigafactory Valencia would be Volkswagen’s second location after Salzgitter and the first one outside of Germany. “In Valencia, we are planning to build up nothing less than next-generation cell production: A standardized factory, producing Volkswagen’s cutting-edge unified cell and supplied with renewable energy, enabling a sustainable battery production. It will create a strong pulling effect in the whole battery value chain in Spain and beyond”, said Schmall.

Source: Volkswagen