Seat accepts the Perte resolution and goes ahead with the Sagunt battery factory

Seat, Volkswagen and their partners in the electrification project have accepted the resolution of the Perte of the automobile, which endows them with almost 400 million euros of public funds, and will continue with the installation of a battery factory in Sagunt, as La Vanguardia reported.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
09 November 2022 Wednesday 06:44
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Seat accepts the Perte resolution and goes ahead with the Sagunt battery factory

Seat, Volkswagen and their partners in the electrification project have accepted the resolution of the Perte of the automobile, which endows them with almost 400 million euros of public funds, and will continue with the installation of a battery factory in Sagunt, as La Vanguardia reported.

This Tuesday was the deadline to define whether or not they accepted the support. The alarms had gone off in the Ministry of Industry and the communities with planned investments after initially raising Seat that the amount fell short.

"It is a historic step. A sign of firm commitment to Spain and Europe," said Seat's CEO, Wayne Griffiths, announcing the decision. "Seventy years ago Seat put Spain on wheels. Now we will put Spain on electric wheels," the manager launched.

The resolution of the Perte "is a first step" in its electrification plan, which will entail an investment of 10,000 million euros. They will be used to electrify the Martorell and Pamplona plants and to build a battery plant in Sagunt. The ban on selling combustion cars in Europe from 2035 forces it to transform its activity in Spain to guarantee the survival of the factories.

Thus, with the revitalization of the plants, it will seek to sell electric cars "made in Spain" to the entire continent, Griffiths pointed out, democratizing access to sustainable mobility. "This plan will drive the transformation of our industry, help create thousands of jobs and maintain the country's competitiveness," he added. It is "great news" that shows "the commitment" of the brand, said the Minister of Industry, Reyes Maroto.

At the Volkswagen headquarters in Wolfsburg, the expectations of aid were much higher, taking into account that there was talk of aid for almost 3,000 million in Perte. But only 30% of the available funds -877.2 million- have been awarded, because it has been shown that the process of presenting candidate projects was too complex.

The 397 million euros that were assigned to the project in Perte represent 4% of the total investment that is intended and almost half of what was requested by the group of companies in the project, more than 700 million. The low figure -Griffiths went so far as to say that it was "insufficient"- generated doubts after the resolution was announced, with Seat coming to negotiate an extension of the aid with the Government.

After weeks of intense negotiations, the company has finally decided to accept the initial distribution. Of these, 214 million are grants and the rest are loans. In addition, after the mobilization of the autonomies, the Valencian Community, chaired by Ximo Puig, will contribute some 60 million, while Catalonia could help with 50 and Navarra with about 40 million. And from the central government it is ensured that there will be a second round of aid.