2023 not only marked 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 2026. To achieve this, the company has designed a strategic plan that includes five main pillars: people and organisation; electrification and product; end to end production (E2E); digitalisation and sustainability.
A key element of this transformation is SEAT S.A.’s leadership of the electric urban car cluster for the Brand Group Core, the family of cars that will democratise sustainable urban mobility for different brands.
Martorell will become one of the Group’s production hubs for electric cars and a crucial part of the electric vehicle value chain in Spain. For this, SEAT S.A. has invested an additional 300 million euros in the construction of a plant in Martorell where the battery cells that PowerCo will manufacture in the gigafactory in Sagunto, Valencia, will be assembled.
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 Centre 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 battery system assembly plant in Martorell will not only transform the electrification infrastructure of Spain but also boost the economy. Once completed, the plant will have fully robotized processes with a maximum technical capacity of 300,000 batteries yearly, and a total workforce of 500 professionals.
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 a 600-metre-long bridge 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. In 2024, the main phase was concluded.
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 amounts to 200 hectares.
The gigafactory will supply unified cells to the vehicle plants in Martorell and Pamplona, among others.
