In order to feed the production of electric vehicles that will leave the production lines of the group’s factories in Martorell and Pamplona, Volkswagen inaugurated what will be its second battery factory, located 30 kilometers north of Valencia, on a 130-hectare plot. The ceremony took place in the presence of the King, the Prime Minister and the Mayor of Spain, and production is expected to begin in 2026.
Managed by PowerCo, the Volkswagen Group entity responsible for battery factories, Valencia intends to produce batteries with a combined capacity of 40 GWh annually, a figure that could increase to 60 GWh in the future. The new Spanish battery cell factory thus joins two other facilities of the type of the German group, the first of which has already begun construction in Salzgitter, Germany, and should come into operation in 2025. There is also a third unit of manufacturing that is intended to power North American factories and is being erected in St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada.
If they are identical to the cells that will be manufactured at Saltzgitter (and everything indicates that they will be), the Valencia factory will produce prismatic cells, mainly intended to supply the current VW factories in Pamplona and Seat in Martorell. Both produce vehicles for various brands of the German conglomerate and both will be modified to be able to manufacture electric vehicles based on the MEB and MEB0 platform of the German group. The next mini-trams will also come out of these two Spanish battery-powered vehicle factories, such as the VW ID.2ALL and the Cupra UrbanRebel, which should be joined by models of about 4 meters from Skoda and Seat.
The Valencia battery factory, as well as the reformulation of the Pamplona and Martorell production lines, are part of an investment of 10,000 million euros made by the VW Group, in the company of PowerCo, Seat SA and 49 partners. As a result of this investment, 3,000 direct jobs and around 30,000 indirect jobs will be created, mainly in suppliers that will be installed on the land adjacent to the Gigafactory Valencia.
Source: Observadora
