When PERTE came out, many manufacturers saw a golden opportunity to develop their activity in our country with better conditions. The Volkswagen Group was one of the main protagonists that applied for benefit from these grants, always with the Sagunto battery factory at the pyre point. Despite the disagreements that have occurred in recent days, Volkswagen has accepted the PERTE and will continue with its projects in Spain, which aim to promote electrification.
They are a total of €397.37 million those that were awarded to the German group, an amount that initially seemed insufficient for the development of its Gigafactory. However, at the last moment Wayne Griffiths, president of SEAT, has announced his acceptance and the commitment of an additional investment on his part. Following the “Future: Fast Forward” project, the Volkswagen Group and Seat, together with the 60 companies that are part of the initiative will invest around 10,000 million euros in Spain.
This is great news for the national industry, which will witness unprecedented electrification in the coming years. The project of the Sagunto battery factory It is the jewel in the crown of the Volkswagen Group in Spain as it will create 3,000 direct jobs and more than 10,000 indirect jobs. It is hoped that I can start operating in the year 2026 and that when it is fully operational it will have a production capacity of 40 GWh per year. These batteries will go to the SEAT plants in Martorell and Volkswagen in Pamplona.
Because these two Spanish factories will be responsible for the production of a new affordable electric car from the Volkswagen Group. With the MEB Small platform, it is expected that a Volkswagen ID1 or ID2 similar to the ID.Life prototype can be made, along with another copy of Skoda and something similar to the Cupra Urbanrebel. This will be thanks to the 397 million euros of the total of 877 million in the first phase of PERTE, which will help Spain continue to be an important producer at European level.
We must not forget that our industry is the second most powerful in the continent after Germany and that there were some doubts that it could maintain its position with the electrification of the sector.