The multinational Ford has accepted aid of 37.6 million euros from the battery line of the second call of the Strategic Project for the Recovery and Economic Transformation of the Electric and Connected Vehicle (Perte VEC), with the aim of establishing a plant battery assembly at the Almussafes factory.
This has been confirmed to Europa Press by a company source after the Levante-EMV newspaper reported it, after last September, the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism published the first list with the approved applications for this line of the Perte VEC , which was awarded to Ford, with 37.6 million euros, and to Basquevolt, with 14.7 million euros.
As published by the Executive, Ford’s project involves developing a new plant for the assembly of batteries for 100% electric vehicles in Almussafes, with a financeable budget of 188 million euros. It was in March 2021 when Ford announced that the Valencian plant would produce a new hybrid engine and at the same time, that it was allocating an additional investment of 5.2 million euros to support the increase in battery assembly capacity. This amount was added to the initial 24 million already committed.
The decision to accept the aid comes after in 2022 the firm renounced the aid from the first call of the Perte VEC, which was going to be used for the transformation of the Almussafes plant, because the investment deadlines “did not fit.” This decision showed that the plans for electrification were slowing down and plunged the automobile sector in Valencia into a process of concern awaiting new decisions from the company.
That is why this aid is part of the pending electrification process at the Almussafes factory and uncertainty about the arrival of the necessary investments to transform the Valencian factory, which will produce the company’s electric vehicles.
In 2022, the Almussafes factory was chosen by Ford to produce its new electric vehicle platform starting in 2025, a decision that ensured the workload in the coming years, but that did not prevent the decision to resize the workforce with a ERE that has affected 1,124 workers.
Last November, Ford announced – according to the majority union UGT – that it was postponing “any decision that has to do with investments” for the electrification of the factory, after the visit that the Director of Operations of Ford Motor made to Almussafes in November. Company, Kumar Galhotra.
Meanwhile, the factory has had to adjust its production due to reduced sales. This year Ford Almussafes will stop manufacturing the Transit van and the only model until the arrival of the new electric ones will be the Kuga.