Stellantis could start manufacturing small electric vehicles in Spain as early as 2025. If local reports are accurate, it would represent a U-turn from comments made by chief executive Carlos Tavares in March 2022.
Spanish publication Cinco Dias reports that the automotive conglomerate is engaged in discussions with the federal government to begin local production of vehicles based on the STLA Small architecture.
“The decision is not made, there are pending issues to close, but the dialogue is fluid, habitual,” an unnamed Stellantis source told the publication.
Read: Maserati, Alfa Romeo To Make STLA Large Platform Electric Vehicles At Italy’s Cassino Plant
This report is particularly intriguing as 12 months ago, Tavares said that Stellantis was not engaged in any discussions with the Spanish government about plans to build EVs locally. Spain’s Minister of Industry, Commerce, and Tourism, Reyes Maroto, recently attended a meeting with Stellantis executive vice president of manufacturing Arnaud Deboeuf in Paris, France and has also made recent visits to current Stellantis plants in Spain.
Stellantis is thought to be favoring building STLA Small-based vehicles in Spain because the country already builds the Opel Corsa and the all-electric Peugeot e-208. The STLA Large platform is already off the table as Stellantis has confirmed that it will be built in Italy at its Cassino factory.
It’s not just the thought of new EV car production that has interested Spanish media. In October last year, Stellantis director of operations for Europe, Uwe Hochgeschurtz, said the company may also establish a battery plant in Spain.
“In 2035, all cars in Europe will have to be electric, because the European Union has decided so, so of course, we will have to make batteries, there is no doubt about that,” Hochgeschurtz said. “There will be battery plants in Europe and probably also in Spain.”
The battery cells used in the EVs currently built in Spain are sourced from Asia and assembled at factories in Vigo and Zaragoza.
