Europe in search of a Tata: Indian investments for a new gigafactory
Tata Motors intends to build an electric mobility plant in the Old Continent: two countries are in the running, but according to rumors, the choice has already been made
The ecological and energy transition underway in the automotive world is essentially demonstrating a fact: the Old Continent is even older than we thought, struggling to prove itself competitive with respect to the USA and Asia, which are a plethora of gigafactories and incentives for sector industry. Brussels legislates, of course, it is the first to have decided to ban internal combustion engines, but it has been found unprepared in the face of Biden's wrath and risks letting the weight of its choices rest on the shoulders of the car manufacturers, which could repay it fleeing elsewhere, where there is no shortage of incentives. In a similar scenario, the investment that the Indian Tata Motors could make in Europe certainly represents a precious shot in the arm. However, the question that everyone is now asking is: in which country will the Indians invest?
TWO KINGDOMS FOR TATA MOTORS
According to what Reuters revealed, Tata was poised between the United Kingdom and Spain, but in truth he would have taken a decision and indeed would have already contacted the Spanish government. The fund that the government of the Mediterranean country has allocated to support the ecological transition by exploiting the funds of the Next Generation Eu with foresight has made the Indians jealous. After all, the fund has already attracted Volkswagen and Ford into Madrid's orbit.
AFTER FORD AND VW, SPAIN ALSO ATTRACTIONS INDIANS
With the go-ahead from the Spanish government, which arrived last November, for economic support in favor of the ecological transition initiative, Volkswagen will go ahead with the 10 billion investment (initially the budgeted sum was seven) announced in the first half of the year to start the production of zero-emission cars and the creation of the related batteries in Spain. We all know how much 10 billion are, but to give an even better idea of the proportions, VW's last investment in Spain in the electric and hybrid car segment was in 2021 for a 7 million R&D plant (we'll talk about it shortly). . Not billions.
Given the importance of the figure, accompanied by half the Iberian government, the then number 1 of VW, Herbert Diess, had rightly declared: “We will electrify Spain with a new gigafactory and a new factory dedicated to electric cars. We will create a supplier ecosystem that works across the entire value chain, from lithium extraction to battery assembly."
The former CEO's reference was to the battery factory in Segunto, near Valencia which will have a capacity of 40 GWh per year and should be ready by the first quarter of 2023. The gigafactory will instead be operational by 2026 but will reach full capacity regime only in 2030 when it will have over 3,000 employees.
The German plan envisages the involvement of Seat, 60 companies associated with Volkswagen and, above all, the largest Spanish energy company, Iberdrola, which has allocated 500 million euros for electric mobility and which will install a photovoltaic park which will help power the gigafactory to be built in Sagunto. It would have been precisely the intervention of Seat and Iberdrola, in all probability pushed into the field by the Spanish government, that convinced the Germans to put 3 billion more into the operation, with the increase from seven to 10.
WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT TATA'S INVESTMENT
Returning to Tata Motors, the financial director PB Balaji , a few weeks ago had already revealed his intention to allocate ad hoc investments for a new series of gigafactories in India and Europe, and although the link with Great Britain is strong, the United Kingdom The United Kingdom would have been discarded due to the too many unknowns weighing on the country after Brexit and the contextual economic situation which was not very thriving.
In Spain, according to the local press , Tata has already identified the area of Zuera, on the outskirts of Zaragoza, for its European plant: it is an industrial lot already studied by the Volkswagen group before choosing Sagunto. According to reports, the Indians have already had several meetings with officials of the autonomous community of Aragon.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/europa-tata-motors-spagna-gigafactory/ on Tue, 07 Feb 2023 10:47:50 +0000.