Seat will build a new battery cell assembly plant in Martorell, Spain and has committed an additional €300 million ($337 million) into the project that it says will create more than 400 direct jobs and 10 indirect ones.
The new factory will cover an area of 64,000 square meters and will also be used to assemble PowerCo cells that will be manufactured at a gigafactory in Sagunto, Valencia. Seat president Wayne Griffiths added that the battery plant will be connected to Workshop 10, the company’s site that will produce various EVs for the Volkswagen Group, including the forthcoming Cupra Raval.
“Construction will begin in the coming weeks and is scheduled for completion in 2025,” Griffiths said in a statement. “This facility is fundamental for our company and will also provide the impulse to obtain a second platform in Martorell. This is a key moment for our industry. SEAT S.A. and the Volkswagen Group are committing major resources to achieving sustainable mobility and to continue advancing our ambition to turn Spain into a hub for electric mobility in Europe.”
Read: Seat Delays EVs Until After 2026, Prioritizes Profitable Cupra Brand
The announcement of this new battery factory comes just three months after Griffiths revealed that the company is currently focusing on electrifying the Cupra brand and that for the moment, the Seat brand will continue to produce combustion models. Griffiths, who is also the chief executive of Cupra in addition to Seat, said the company cannot electrify both brands at once, meaning that Seat isn’t planning an EV launch until at least 2026.
While some may say that Seat is stagnating due to this strategy, the same cannot be said about Cupra. In addition to already selling the VW ID.3-based Born EV, Cupra is gearing up to launch the all-electric Tavascan SUV and has already confirmed that the UrbanRebel concept will spawn an electric hatchback in 2025 dubbed the Raval.