Volkswagen revealed this Friday its intention to increase the production capacity of the Sagunto gigafactory by 50% in the future. He King Felipe VI; the president of the Government, Pedro Sanchez; the valencian baron Ximo Puig; and part of the dome Volkswagen and SEAT in Spain and Europe They met on the land now in the development phase that will house the battery plant to stage the start of the infrastructure works.
The affiliate in charge of the project, PowerCo, has planned two phases of construction, with a first implementation to manufacture up to 40 gigawatts/hour (GW/h), with an investment of 3,000 million euros to start manufacturing in 2026. But the advisor and head of technology at Volkswagen, thomas schmalltook advantage of his speech to announce the possibility of production reaching 60GW/h, which would raise the injection of resources in a second phase to 4,500 million euros.
The confirmation of this more ambitious vision than initially anticipated fits with the plans of the German multinational to become a global battery supplier, not only for the vehicles of their brands (VW, SEAT, Cupra, Skoda and Porsche), but also for other manufacturers. In this sense, the agency Reuters reported today through a teletype dated in Berlinafter interviewing Schmall, of the existence of an agreement with Ford to supply electric cells for the cars that the American brand will manufacture in the Volkswagen MEB electric platform in Cologne. According to the same information, 1.2 million cars that Ford will manufacture in Europe will be able to count on the batteries that VW will assemble in Salzgitter (Germany), Sweden or Sagunto. The Detroit brand plans to present next week in Valencia, within the international battery congress held in the city of Valencia, its new electric model for Europe that will be assembled in Cologne.
The question is whether Sagunto will also serve Ford’s electric platform in Almussafes. But the reservation of land that PowerCo has made in the Valencian town for its second phase opens the door to a possible agreement in Spain that has yet to be finalized. For now, the forecast, according to Schmall, is to produce 150 million cells per year to provide batteries for more than 500,000 electric vehicles, which will be produced in the Martorell and Pamplona plants.
During the metaphorical act of laying the first stone, on land already free of vegetation and with the machines working to level the ground, Felipe VI claimed the Sagunto and Volkswagen project in Spain as an opportunity to turn the country into “turning into a hub of electric mobility and create a complete and connected ecosystem for the manufacture of electric vehicles”. The German group plans to invest a total of 10,000 million euros with its plan Future Fast Forward. The expected global and induced economic impact is more than 20,000 million euros. In Sagunto, the estimate is 3,000 direct jobs and 12,000 induced.
After describing the project as a “great industrial initiative”, Felipe VI insisted that the automobile industry has always had the vocation and responsibility of being a lever for transforming our country”.
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, pointed out that the new Sagunto factory exemplifies “the commitment of the Government of Spain for innovation and sustainable mobility” a sign of our commitment to the industry, but also with the characteristics that define an entrepreneurial nation in the global market: innovation, territorial cohesion and public-private cooperation”, he added.
Volkswagen revealed this Friday its intention to increase the production capacity of the Sagunto gigafactory by 50% in the future. He King Felipe VI; the president of the Government, Pedro Sanchez; the valencian baron Ximo Puig; and part of the dome Volkswagen and SEAT in Spain and Europe They met on the land now in the development phase that will house the battery plant to stage the start of the infrastructure works.
