The Government has approved a direct aid of 90 million euros to the Valencia Community to “facilitate investments” aimed at the construction of the gigafactory of cells for batteries for electric cars in Sagunto by PowerCo, a Volkswagen group company .
The concession is included in the Royal Decree-Law on response measures to the economic and social consequences of the Ukrainian War approved this Tuesday, at the last Council of Ministers.
“In order to support projects that facilitate the development of the electric and connected vehicle ecosystem, the direct granting of a subsidy charged to the General State Budget for 2023 to the Valencian Community is established, for an amount of 90 million euros, to the implementation of an instrument to support projects for the development of a battery factory”, states the Royal Decree-Law published this Wednesday in the Official State Gazette (BOE).
This subsidy is compatible with the aid assigned to the industrial project led by Seat and Volkswagen within the framework of the Strategic Project for the Recovery and Economic Transformation of the Electric and Connected Vehicle (Perte VEC), also linked to the construction of the battery factory in Sagunto . Specifically, this initiative will receive a total of 357.01 million euros in aid from Perte VEC.
The Government has argued that the Valencian Community has an “important contribution” to the automotive sector in Spain given that it represents around 6% of the active population in the region and that 5% of that employment is “high technological intensity”. .
“Additionally, it is a neuralgic point for the development of the sector due to its good communication with other automobile production centers, one of which is located in the community itself. It is also worth noting the strategic situation that facilitates trade with third countries”, the Executive has defended.
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The royal decree-law also establishes that for the financing of this direct aid to the Valencian Community an “extraordinary credit” will be approved in the budget of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism for an amount of 90 million euros.
Public exhibition of the PAI Parc Sagunt II
On the other hand, the Generalitat has released the Parc Sagunt II Integrated Action Project (PAI) for the development and urbanization of the business park where the gigafactory for manufacturing battery cells for electric vehicles of PowerCo will be located. Volkswagen group company.
As pointed out by the General Director of Urban Planning, Vicent García Nebot, this urban development will be “a milestone not only for the Valencian Community, but for the whole country, because it prepares this area of industrial and logistics land for the rest of the activities and auxiliary industry related to the automobile cluster”.
In addition, the general director has confirmed that “the objective is to develop a green park in which the urbanization is fully integrated environmentally.”
The project is submitted to public information for a period of 23 days, from the date of its publication this Wednesday in the Official Gazette of the Generalitat Valenciana (DOGV)period during which the presentation of allegations regarding the content by the people or entities that are considered interested is enabled, according to the Generalitat in a statement.
This urban instrument supposes, along with the recent declaration of the gigafactory as a Strategic Territorial Project (PTE) by the Consell, one more administrative step for the consolidation and development of the gigafactory, as well as the implementation of other companies to “consolidate in the Valencian Community an industrial and innovative cluster dedicated to sustainable mobility”, the administration highlighted.
García Nebot has stressed that “this type of participatory process confirms compliance by the Generalitat with the deadlines agreed with PowerCo for the development of the gigafactory”.
One of the objectives of this factory and other similar ones in the European Union is to contribute to the decarbonisation of the economy, to lower the costs of electric vehicles and to reduce energy dependence on fossil fuels.
