Government gives 152 million euros to PowerCo's battery gigafactory in Sagunto
PowerCo's electric-vehicle battery gigafactory in Sagunto has received 152 million euros from Spain's Recovery Plan, which has now invested 7,208 million euros in the Valencian Community, government delegate Pilar Bernabé said on Thursday.
The Spanish government's regional delegate for the Comunitat Valenciana (Valencian Community), Pilar Bernabé, announced on Thursday that the national Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR) has executed 7,208 million euros in the region up to 30 June, reaching 166,064 direct beneficiaries. Of that total, 4,505 million came from state-level calls and tenders, while 2,703 million was allocated to the region through sector-specific agreements.
For Sagunto, the most relevant figure is the 152 million euros received by PowerCo Battery's electric-vehicle battery gigafactory, a subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group, through the PERTE VEC programme (a national strategic project supporting electric and connected vehicles). That amount is part of a wider 550 million euro regional package for PERTE VEC, of which 111 million went to the Moves III subsidy scheme, benefiting more than 30,100 people across the region.
Today's figure adds to earlier commitments to the Sagunto plant: when Volkswagen announced the project in 2022, the company made its investment conditional on receiving around 750 million euros in public subsidies, and as early as November of that year the government awarded a first instalment of 397 million euros through PERTE 1, on top of which the Generalitat (regional government) contributed 167 million.
The port of Sagunto is also among the beneficiaries of the EU-backed funds: together with the ports of Valencia and Gandia, it received 54.8 million euros for projects covering alternative energy generation, track duplication and improvements to the internal rail network. The port handled 6.56 million tonnes of cargo in 2016, the latest figure available, giving a sense of the logistics weight behind these investments.
Regionally, Adif (Spain's rail infrastructure manager) has spent 714 million euros on rail works, including the expansion of Valencia's Joaquín Sorolla station and safety upgrades along the Mediterranean Corridor. Roads received 31 million euros, and sustainable and digital mobility 121.4 million, funding low-emission zones in fourteen municipalities across the three provinces.
The plan has also allocated 59 million euros to irrigation communities covering 42,613 hectares, while other sector-specific PERTE programmes — circular economy, aerospace, agrifood, renewable energy and decarbonisation — add several hundred million euros more to the region. Bernabé also highlighted sustainable urban development projects worth 22.9 million euros in 87 municipalities with fewer than 5,000 residents, part of the fight against rural depopulation.
According to El Periódico de Aquí — Sagunto / Camp de Morvedre, with additional background from Wikipedia on the earlier financing of the PowerCo gigafactory.