Let no one expect it because, for the moment, there will be no Power Electronics gigafactory: neither the Element Gigafactory nor the Element Valencia, announced two years ago, will be a reality. This was confirmed yesterday by the CEO of Power Electronics, David Salvo, who explains how the Valencian Battery Alliance "was a staging" of what the Valencian Community could be in connivance with the Presidency of the Generalitat Valenciana, at that time in the hands of Ximo Puig. "The objective was not for Power Electronics to be able to set up a gigafactory, but for a battery gigafactory to be located in the Valencian Community," acknowledges Salvo.
It was 2021, the pandemic had already done its thing, and the Puig government summoned, with distance and a mask, to the Ciutat de les Arts y les Ciències the most prominent interlocutors in the electric mobility sector to present a project that was sold as conceived two years earlier and led by the Valencian company Power Electronics.
Quite a few companies participated in it, as there was the Technological Institute of Energy (ITE), the Institute of Molecular Science of the University of Valencia (ICMOL) and the Technological Institute of Chemistry of the Polytechnic University of Valencia (ITQ) and companies such as Ford, Stadler, Iberdrola, Grupo Segura and Grupo Gimeno, among others.
Now, Salvo says that the context was the trigger, since "with electrification there was a risk of relocation of European manufacturers." Thus, he explains that the Generalitat "needed a driving company. It was not Ford, which was the main objective, and I asked them how a project would have to be done if they wanted to make it viable," explains the businessman.
The project was not minor. In that presentation, numbers were put to the economic impact, with an estimate of creating 30,000 jobs and an investment of more than 2,000 million euros, in addition to the forecast of contributing up to 2,500 million euros of growth to the Valencian GDP. Almost nothing.
However, it was all a "political strategy", says Salvo, to attract a battery factory in the territory to the Valencian Community. He assures that they were the ones who presented themselves as leaders of the project at the request of the Presidency "because they needed a tractor project and we helped as much as we could until PowerCO came in." Let us remember that at that time there was "enormous competition", as Puig described in his presentation, since Catalonia was also fighting for a similar project through the "Battery Hub" proposal, presented as one of the main axes of the Catalan strategy to qualify for Next-Generation funds.
Likewise, as interlocutors of the Presidency, Salvo explains, he had both the former Minister of Territory, and at that time regional secretary, Rebeca Torró, and the current regional secretary of Economic Model and Financing, Mako Mira, who currently continues in the current government that Carlos now directs. Mazón precisely to work on projects like this.
Going into more technical issues, David Salvo explains that PowerCo in its future gigafactory is going to use two technologies (this is what is being used in large-scale storage and in the final electric vehicle), “so ours does not make sense.” . Once PowerCO confirms that it is interested, it makes no sense to set up the same thing ourselves,” says the manager, who already completely rules out that the projects presented in 2021 will see the light of day. Likewise, when asked what benefit Power Electronics obtained from the pantomime, its CEO assures that "we have not gained anything, only helping the Valencian Community."
