The Valencian Community was once again in the news in the automotive world this last week due to the confirmation, by Ford, that the Valencian factory in Almussafes is the one chosen to take on the challenge of producing vehicles based on an architecture of electric vehicles of new generation.
A new challenge that makes the Valencian industry a reference in the development of electric vehicles in Europe and that focuses on batteries, also protagonists due to the gigafactory that SEAT-Volkswagen recently announced that it will locate, if PERTE is confirmed, in Sagunt. Likewise, the president of the automotive cluster of the Valencian Community (AVIA) values that both decisions strengthen the Community as "the European region of reference in electric and sustainable mobility, as well as a pole of technological investment".
And the Technological Institute of Energy (ITE), based in Paterna, has been working on this reference in electric mobility for some time, whose director of marketing and communication, Ignacio Casado, defends that "the Valencian Community has an important industrial and research fabric, with the capacity to address the entire value chain of battery manufacturing".
One of these instruments is the Valencian Battery Alliance, promoted by the Generalitat Valenciana and of which ITE is the technical coordinator, its objective being to promote and promote the development of technology and projects related to the manufacture of batteries.
But the ITE also works on other projects, for example, in association with Valencian companies to develop battery energy management systems, investigate the development of new materials and components for the manufacture of cells, analyze through laboratory tests the state of batteries to determine their status and/or second life or recycling or in the creation of electrical and thermal models that allow determining their operation. "All our developments seek to anticipate the future needs of companies, which is why we seek alignment with national and European strategies in this field," explains Ignacio Casado.
For example, they carry out, in different lines of financing, projects such as SINCLAIR, financed by the General Directorate of Innovation of the Generalitat Valenciana, and which aims to provide a solution to the limited access to certain raw materials that will be key to decarbonising the economy, with regard to the techniques for the production of components to improve the properties of lithium batteries.
Around the investigation, new professional profiles are activated, both due to the future needs of firms such as Volkswagen with batteries or Ford for its commitment to electric vehicles.
In this sense, Ignacio Casado maintains that the electrical, electronic and chemical profiles are going to have "particular relevance" in a scenario in which the establishment and consolidation of both multinationals are going to generate "great industrial opportunities, developing and promoting the creation of new companies and the diversification and specialization of many others, for which the differential point will be the specialization of their teams".
