Friday, March 29

Volkswagen threatens not to build the battery factory in Sagunt if the Government does not raise aid

The Sagunt battery gigafactory is reeling. The Volkswagen group has threatened to withdraw the project if the Government does not increase the aid of the Perte VEC (Strategic Project for the Recovery and Economic Transformation of the Electric and Connected Vehicle).

The Sagunt gigafactory involves an investment of 2,975 million euros between loans (1,425 million) and subsidies (1,550), but doubts about the volume of investment they may receive from the Perte of the electric vehicle have set off alarm bells. The member of the supervisory council of the Volkswagen Group and president of the Seat works council, Matías Carnero, has confirmed to EFE that the possibility of the German consortium backing down “is on the table”, as it has advanced this Thursday Automotive Tribune.

The Volkswagen Group would consider unacceptable, according to the union leader, a figure of around 300 or 380 million euros, which is what is being considered and which is far from the 700 or 800 million euros that the consortium had reached to request more or less explicitly.

“Once the final resolution of the Perte is published, SEAT and the Volkswagen Group, with the 60 partners of Future Fast Forward, will analyze this resolution and make a decision on the different projects,” said Carnero.

Insistence of the Generalitat Valenciana

The Generalitat is working “incessantly and tirelessly” so that the construction project of the Volkswagen battery gigafactory in Sagunt is carried out as planned. This has been stated in statements to Europa Press in sources of the consortium, who have urged the Executive to publish “as soon as possible” the final resolution of the aid, which is very late and is causing uncertainty in the sector.

These sources reiterated the intention of the automobile group to start up the Sagunt factory, as well as to mobilize, together with 60 companies, through the ‘Future: Fast Forward’ initiative, more than 10,000 million euros in the electrification of the Spanish industry and to turn the country into a ‘hub’ for electric mobility. The Sagunt project alone contemplates an investment by the private sector of 3,000 million euros.

The Valencian factory would be the third of these characteristics that the Germans put in Europe, in addition to Germany and Sweden, and it is planned that another three will be built before 2030, with which to meet the demand for the brand.

The German multinational requires a 200-hectare plot of land for the construction of its facilities in Parc Sagunt, which will employ 3,000 people directly until 2030 – it is estimated that between 10,000 and 12,000 more jobs will be generated indirectly.



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