The Government accelerates the distribution of 2,000 million more to calm the automotive industry

Volkswagen's threat to give up the Sagunt battery factory set off alarms in the Government.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
24 October 2022 Monday 04:47
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The Government accelerates the distribution of 2,000 million more to calm the automotive industry

Volkswagen's threat to give up the Sagunt battery factory set off alarms in the Government. That an automobile group like the German can give up one of the largest industrial projects, in charge of European funds, has forced Moncloa and Industry to mobilize. Tomorrow the details of the distribution of the first 880 million Perte of the electric vehicle will be announced and Catalonia will be in the front line there. The Executive also accelerates the second installment, the most powerful, of up to 2,000 million.

The Ministry of Industry has contacted during the last few hours with the companies in the sector that presented candidate projects to receive aid to inform them if their proposal has been successful. According to government sources, the administrative procedure contemplates this procedure before making the final table known to public opinion.

In these conversations, the Government is transmitting to the automobile companies that this rain of millions is only the beginning and that in just four or five months the bulk of the aid will arrive. The Perte of the electric car will mobilize a total of 2,900 million, so at the beginning of the year Industry will specify the second and most important amount, more than double the already decided. Minister Reyes Maroto specified last week that the strategic project should be distributed throughout the first quarter of 2023.

The Government assumes delays in the realization of aid. He is aware that bureaucratic procedures have postponed decisions that have inflamed spirits in the sector. Hence Ford's first decision and Volkswagen's position. But in Industry they trust that this imminent rain of millions and, especially, the future one will help calm the spirits of some firms that ask for public collaboration to carry out their projects.

Official sources add that the Government will be sensitive to the demands of the sector and that, in addition to the aid contemplated in the Perte, other types of "support" could be activated for the companies.

The head of Industry took a position along the same lines last week. Reyes Maroto stressed that the aid for automobiles activated this week represents "a one-time investment" since "such an amount had never been invested in the sector in Spain." And he already pointed out that the aid that is not executed in this first round will go to the second, scheduled for before the end of the first quarter of the year.