It was in 2022 that Volkswagen chose Valencia, specifically Sagunto, to host its battery factory. Yet the construction has faced delays: Volkswagen had a schedule that planned to have the first pre-production units of battery cells ready by September 2026 so that mass production would begin in 2027.
And in the midst of the German group’s gigantic restructuring plan—which includes a huge number of layoffs—Volkswagen has announced that it has sold almost half of its stake in Sagunto’s gigafactory to the Chinese giant Gotion High-Tech.
Sagunto Won’t Be Operational Until 2027
In the plan for Spain to become a European hub of battery production, ironically, China enters the picture. And we say ironic because this plan was designed precisely to reduce dependence on China, which controls the entire supply chain of the electric car.
The group Volkswagen, through its battery subsidiary PowerCo, has announced an agreement with the Chinese giant Gotion High-Tech to sell 49% of the Sagunto gigafactory (Valencia). The purchase of this tasty slice of the pie amounted to 1.1 billion euros, which will help the German consortium ease its accounts.
Let us remember that Sagunto’s gigafactory aims to produce LFP (lithium iron phosphate) batteries for the CUPRA Raval, the Volkswagen ID.Cross and ID.Polo, and the Skoda Epiq. With this agreement, production capacity is expected to rise to 30 GWh per year, enabling one of the largest European platforms for manufacturing LFP-type battery cells.
With this, there would be four Chinese-controlled projects. Indeed, Envision will manufacture in Navalmoral de la Mata (Cáceres); CATL in Zaragoza with Stellantis, and Gotion with the Slovak InoBat in Castilla y León. According to data gathered by Expansión, the four gigafactory projects point to an investment of nearly €15 billion and a maximum capacity in Spain of 180 GWh.
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