The great Volkswagen, Germany’s main-line auto manufacturer of note, seems to be committing to major investment in the Iberian Peninsula.
News breaks today on further plans by VW to build a ‘giga-factory’ in Valencia that will eventually create 3000 jobs locally.
The company projects the plant should be up and running by the first quarter of 2023.
With €7 billion in funds invested by Volkswagen, and $500 million from Spanish firm Iberdrola, the finished dual facility will actually build cars as well as batteries.
“We will electrify the second-largest car producer in Europe (Spain) with a new giga-factory of batteries and the production of electric cars in two plants,” CEO Herbert Diess told an event in Sagunto according to recent coverage, adding the plan was to create “a full ecosystem of suppliers from lithium extraction to the assembly of batteries”.
The plan to implement a two-pronged strategy was described by VW officials last year in the context of the EV revolution:
“As a third location, Volkswagen Group intends to make Spain a strategic pillar of its electric campaign and is considering to establish the entire value chain of electric cars in that country,” writes a spokesperson, according to a story by Mark Kane at InsideEVs. “As part of a larger transformation program, the localization would secure supply for the planned BEV production in Spain. Volkswagen Group verifies the option for a giga factory together with a strategic partner. In its final expansion stage at the end of the decade, the plant is intended to have a yearly capacity of 40 GWh hours.”
All of this happens as the world pays more and more attention to a burgeoning EV segment. Auto makers all over are pivoting toward the electric vehicle, and quickly. The change even extends to work trucks, exemplified by Tesla’s current pursuit of a “cybertruck” prototype. Keep an eye on this quickly changing industry.
