As part of SEAT S.A’s electrification plan, president Wayne Griffiths has revealed that the company has applied to the PERTE VEC with proposed plans to build a battery cell assembly plant in Martorell, Spain.
“We are going to invest an additional €300m [US$337m] to build this facility, which will also be used to assemble the cells that PowerCo will manufacture at the gigafactory in Sagunto, Valencia,” explained Griffiths.
The proposed plant will cover an area of 64,000m2 and will be connected to Workshop 10, a company building where some of the Volkswagen Group electric vehicles are set to be produced. The location of the new facility will enable the OEM to optimize logistics while simultaneously reducing carbon emissions at the site.
Construction of the assembly plant is scheduled to start in the next few weeks, with an estimated completion date in 2025.
“Public-private collaboration is essential to accelerate this transformation, and in Spain some steps have already been taken in the right direction,” added Griffiths. “For instance, there is a government measure to provide a 15% personal income tax deduction for the purchase of electric vehicles, an initiative that needs to go hand in hand with more investment to expand the charging point infrastructure.”
The announcement of a battery assembly facility in Martorell aligns itself with the company’s Future: Fast Forward project, revealed a few months ago.
“We are investing €10bn [US$11.2bn], the largest industrial investment in the history of Spain, to electrify the automotive industry, create thousands of jobs and maintain the country’s competitiveness,” concluded Griffiths.
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