Volkswagen explores letting Chinese manufacturer Gotion into Sagunto's gigafactory
Volkswagen is considering giving Chinese battery maker Gotion a minority stake in the PowerCo battery gigafactory being built in Sagunto, the city's largest current industrial investment, Reuters has reported.
Volkswagen is negotiating with Chinese manufacturer Gotion High-Tech over the Chinese firm's possible entry into the ownership of the battery gigafactory its subsidiary PowerCo is building in Sagunto, Reuters reported, citing information from La Tribuna de Automoción. The process has included high-level visits by Gotion's CEO, Li Zhen, while the plant prepares to start production by the end of this year.
Neither PowerCo nor Gotion would confirm details: PowerCo only said it regularly evaluates strategic opportunities with possible partners, while a Volkswagen spokesperson clarified that the parent company does not plan to give up control of the plant, meaning any Chinese investment would remain a minority stake.
The relationship goes back further: Volkswagen already bought a 24% stake in Gotion in 2020 for $1.1 billion, and the two companies have held a five-year strategic partnership since this year, running until 2032, to supply LFP-type batteries. Gotion, headquartered in Hefei, China, ended 2025 with a 3.5% global market share, making it the world's sixth-largest battery manufacturer.
The interest in bringing in an Asian partner comes as Volkswagen cuts costs and investment across Europe, including layoffs and plant closures, while trying to compete with rivals such as BYD and Tesla. For Sagunto, where PowerCo (Volkswagen's battery subsidiary) represents one of the district's biggest industrial bets, any change in the gigafactory's ownership is a factor to watch for local jobs.
For Sagunto, the gigafactory is no ordinary project: the plant is expected to start trial production by the end of this year, in a hiring and commissioning phase the industry itself sees as key to getting off the ground. Any change in PowerCo's ownership, even a minority one, is being closely watched across the district, since much of the skilled-employment expectation the plant has generated — and the demand for specialised training the Council is trying to meet with new centres such as Morvedre III — depends on the project's stability. The City Council has repeatedly pointed to the gigafactory as the centrepiece of a shift in the local economic model, one aiming to move on from decades of reliance on traditional steelmaking towards electric mobility and clean energy.
According to Valencia Plaza, with additional data from Wikipedia.