Stellantis and China’s CATL choose Spain for their giant electric vehicle battery plant

After months of rumors and a lot of uncertainty, it’s official. Stellantis Group and CATL, the world’s leading battery manufacturer, have confirmed that They are investing €4.1 billion to build an electric vehicle battery plant in Spain.. The plant, which will be the largest in the territory, will be located in Zaragoza.

The two companies officially announced the decision after Robin Zeng, CEO of CATL, met with Pedro Sanchez after months of meetings and negotiations. Investments in the construction of the plant actually exceed those initially planned (2.5 billion euros, as it turned out Automotive Tribune at the beginning of the year) and This is expected to create 3,000 new jobs..

With Stellantis and CATL battery plant will create joint venture in which the companies will have equal shares. This will allow the automaker to “offer better, more durable and affordable battery-powered passenger cars, crossovers and SUVs in the B and C segments with an intermediate range,” the group confirmed in a statement.

Stellantis and CATL will begin production in 2026

The plant, which could be located near Figuelas, a city where Stellantis has an assembly line, would be used to produce LFP batteries intended for smaller, more fuel-efficient electric vehicles, Stellantis says. Both companies hope to begin production in 2026.and can reach a capacity of up to 50 GWh, thus becoming the largest plant for the production of batteries for electric vehicles in all of Spain, ahead of the giant Volkswagen plant in Sagunto, which has a production capacity of 40 GWh.

Although this will be the first plant that CATL Based in Spain, the battery giant already has gigafactories, also already operational, in two other European markets: Germany and Hungary. The new plant is therefore another step in the energy transition efforts in Europe. All this while the company maintains its goal of becoming a net-zero carbon corporation by 20238.

Stellantisfor its part, it has three factories in Spain dedicated to the production of electric vehicles. They are located in Madrid, Vigo and Zaragoza, where 41% of the total number of cars produced in the country was assembled last year.