2023 not only marks the 30th anniversary of the SEAT S.A. factory in Martorell, but also the beginning of the company’s greatest transformation yet: the journey to electrification.
SEAT S.A.’s main factory will start producing fully electric vehicles from 2025. To achieve this, the company has designed a strategic plan that includes five main pillars: people and organisation, electrification and product, production end to end (E2E), digitalization and sustainability.
A key element of this transformation is SEAT S.A.’s leadership of the Small BEV cluster for the Volkswagen Group, the family of cars that will democratise sustainable urban mobility for different brands. Martorell will become one of the Group’s production hubs for these electric cars and a crucial part of the electric vehicle value chain in Spain.
SEAT S.A. will also open a battery system assembly plant in its headquarters, Martorell. An additional investment of 300 million euros will build the facility, which will also be used to assemble the cells that PowerCo will manufacture at the gigafactory in Sagunto, Valencia.
Battery research and development
A step towards the company's commitment to the electrification of Spain and its transformation into a leading European hub for electric mobility was made in 2021, with the opening of a pioneering battery research and development centre, Test Center Energy (TCE). The TCE tests and develops energy systems for electric and plug-in hybrid cars, with up to 6,000 different tests carried out a year to validate and guarantee the performance of battery and charging systems.
In total, it has a test capacity of 1.3 megawatts, which is the equivalent power required by 350 households to have all electrical devices switched on at the same time, or over 100,000 mobile phones charging simultaneously.
Battery system assembly plant
The construction of a battery system assembly plant in Martorell will not only transform the electrification infrastructure of Spain, but also boost the economy. This project will ensure more than 400 direct jobs and more than 100 indirect jobs.
The plant – which will cover an area equivalent to nine football pitches – will help to optimise logistical processes and reduce the company's carbon footprint by connecting with Workshop 10, where some of the Volkswagen Group's electric cars, including the CUPRA Raval, will be manufactured.
Construction started in July 2023 and is scheduled to complete in 2025.
Kick-off for global battery business with Sagunto gigafactory
As part of the Future: Fast Forward project, PowerCo began constructing a gigafactory for battery cells in Sagunto (Valencia) in 2023.
The annual production capacity is initially 40 GWh but has the potential to be expanded to 60 GWh in the future. The cell factory is being built over an area of around 130 hectares in Sagunto, in the immediate vicinity of Valencia. Together with the planned supplier park, which will be built parallel to the PowerCo factory, the area even amounts to 200 hectares.
The gigafactory will supply unified cells to the vehicle plants in Martorell and Pamplona, among others.
