Gotion to build battery facilities in Spain next year

For this major investment, Gotion High-Tech will receive grants totalling €138 million from the Spanish government under the PERTE funding programme – €46m more than reported in May. The budgets allocated by Gotion for each plant are €411.5m and €539.1m, respectively, resulting in a total investment volume of approximately €950m.

It has now been confirmed that construction of the Valladolid-based industrial complex will begin in 2027. The first facility will be a recycling plant capable of processing up to 200,000 tonnes of battery material per year. Gotion’s leadership describes the construction of this plant as Phase One of the large-scale project. The second phase will focus on producing 200,000 tonnes of cathode material annually. However, Gotion has not yet provided a specific timeline for completing the first phase or starting the second. What is clear is that Gotion plans to operate the two facilities in Spain in conjunction with its planned battery cell production plant in Morocco, where it aims to establish a facility with a capacity of 20GWh.

The plants will be developed on a 12-hectare industrial site near Valladolid. The imminent start of construction is made possible by the subsidies provided by the Spanish government. The funding originates from the eMobility funding programme PERTE, which has previously benefited VW subsidiary Seat, the Stellantis Group, and VW’s battery division PowerCo in earlier funding rounds, with each receiving grants amounting to hundreds of millions.

Commenting on the project in an interview with El País, Spanish Transport Minister Óscar Puente said: “Gotion aims to bring the plants online very soon. The cathode material plant will be unique in the European Union, and the recycling facility will also feature technological components that set it apart from others.” Puente further emphasised Gotion’s intention, in collaboration with Inobat, to invest around €5 billion in constructing a groundbreaking facility in Europe that covers the entire battery supply chain, thereby reducing dependence on tariffs or fluctuations in international markets. The first phase, valued at €950 million, can now commence, with Puente adding that “the Ministry is firmly convinced that Gotion will continue its investments until the total in Spain reaches €5 billion.”

As a reminder: the two planned plants by Gotion High-Tech in Spain were initially linked to the Slovak battery cell manufacturer InoBat. However, after Inobat failed to submit the required guarantees to the Spanish government, Gotion, as a shareholder in InoBat, took over the initiative. Gotion’s largest shareholder is Volkswagen.

forococheselectricos.com, eleconomista.es, elpais.com, mintur.gob.es (all in Spanish)