Ford renounces the financing of the PERTE of the electric vehicle

Ford will not use the financing of the PERTE of the electric vehicle, as Digital Economy advanced this Wednesday.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
24 August 2022 Wednesday 06:44
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Ford renounces the financing of the PERTE of the electric vehicle

Ford will not use the financing of the PERTE of the electric vehicle, as Digital Economy advanced this Wednesday. According to the company, after updating its global production cycle, its forecasts for Europe introduce a delay in its production plans for Spain and that will mean that they cannot take advantage of the PERTE financing program.

In the provisional resolution of the first call for the PERTE of the electric vehicle published by the Government on August 1, Ford had a budgeted aid of 106,335,266 euros for the so-called Strategic Tractor Project for the manufacture of the vehicle of the future, electric and connected, in Ford Spain and in all the companies that make up its industrial chain.

The PERTE are projects of a strategic nature and in the case of the electric vehicle, its central axis is the creation of the necessary ecosystem for the development and manufacture of electric and connected vehicles by promoting the automobile industry to respond to the new sustainable mobility and connected. But in addition, they carry a temporary execution requirement.

From the company they assure that the commitment to the Valencia plant is maintained, since Ford's operations in Spain continue to be a fundamental part of the strategy for Europe.

When on June 22 the car company announced that it was choosing Almussafes for the production of electric vehicles over Saarlouis (Germany), it estimated that it expected to sell 600,000 electric vehicles per year by 2026.

The American multinational says it hopes to work in collaboration with the Government of Spain and the Generalitat Valenciana to seek additional funding opportunities, as it moves towards a range of fully electric passenger vehicles by 2030.

For their part, sources from the Presidency of the Generalitat Valenciana recall that Ford trusts Valencia beyond PERTE and that the news is only a rescheduling of investments that makes it impossible for him to access PERTE, not a change of plans.

From the Presidency they also point out today that the president of the Generalitat, Ximo Puig, has been in permanent contact with Ford and with the Ministry of Industry during these days and that the three parties have ratified their commitments to make Almussafes a strategic plant in the future of Ford's electric car.

Likewise, Juan Ángel Poyatos, general director of Coordination of Government Action and head of the Valencian Office for Recovery, declared this Wednesday that "Ford's commitment to Almussafes goes beyond European funds. Clearly we have Ford for a long and the sample is that despite not being able to receive them, they continue betting on Almussafes".

Poyatos has also explained that the regional government is in contact with the other companies in the consortium to seek "any type of formula" that allows these planned investments to be carried out.

Ford's plans for an all-electric future in Europe support a global target of more than 2 million annual electric vehicle production by 2026 and a company adjusted EBIT margin of 10% by 2026.

From the UGT-PV union, majority in the Valencian factory, they have valued the decision attributing this resignation to the fact that Ford has not confirmed the new models.

The union explains that "we have always maintained that what was really decisive and fundamental for the assignment of the new Ford electric platform was that the workers reached an agreement with the management, which ensured a stable working environment and guaranteed the necessary investments to undertake that transformation towards electrification".

In this way, UGT-PV values ​​the Electrification Agreement, which stressed the plant for half a year while waiting for Detroit's decision. "Today the Electrification Agreement reached on January 27 between UGT and the company is more important," said his spokesperson.

The same union, furthermore, reiterates that with the decision known today "it is not in question to undertake the investments that guarantee the construction of the electrical platform committed to in said Agreement and that guarantees thousands of jobs in very good conditions."