Vigo

It had been a while since it was rumored but it has been a official communication from Stellantis which has settled the matter: the STLA Small multi-energy platform is awarded to Spain. The Vigo and Zaragoza plants have their future guaranteed by producing the smallest electric or electrified cars of the automotive group. In addition, Stellantis has also confirmed that it is working on a project to modernize the Villaverde plant in Madrid and give it life beyond the current production of the Citroën C4. The announcement of this award is really important for the Galician and Aragonese plant that in recent years They have feared for the future of their jobs. Furthermore, without leaving Aragon, the confirmation that Stellantis will manufacture its electrified B segment cars there is an endorsement of the joint plans that it maintains with CATL to build a huge battery plant for electric cars next to Zaragoza. The electric car that Europe needs to succeed In your path towards cleaner mobilityIn 2025, Europe will have one of its first touchstones. The new emissions regulations will force us to significantly reduce the combustion car market and increase, even if artificially, the market share of electric and plug-in hybrids. Even if this requires reducing the production of vehicles with combustion engines. Manufacturers who do not act in this way will have to face billion-dollar fines which will be calculated from 95 euros for each gram of CO2 exceeded (the fleet average must not be higher than 93.6 gr/km of CO2) and car sold. In addition to balance your production, Stellantis will pay Tesla to reduce their polluting emissions and present themselves to the European Union under the same group. With this panorama, Europe will have to take a breath and cross its fingers before checking If the customer is willing to pay what the manufacturers ask for for smaller electric cars. The reception of those of 25,000 euro vehicles will be key to understand if the goals set regarding emissions are realistic or, on the contrary, have been overestimated. In that price range, compact and smaller electric cars are the ones that will have to be attractive enough to convince potential clients. These cars are the ones that Stellantis will manufacture on the platform STLA Smalla base that allows vehicles mounted on it to achieve ranges of up to 500 kilometers. But, above all, they have the advantage of being multi-energy and, therefore, offering hybrid versions (plug-in or not) of the same car. This platform has been the one that has been awarded to Vigo and Zaragoza. It is an especially important announcement since they keep alive two plants that last year produced 890,000 vehicles (one in every three cars of all national production), according to Five Days. The economic newspaper assures that, although there is no official data, Stellantis’ investment in modernizing the Vigo and Zaragoza lines for its STLA Small will be around 900 million euros and that, in total, 5,000 million euros will be invested in our country if added to the amount of the new CATL battery plant in Zaragoza. This combo of a car production plant and batteries for said cars is great news for workers. It must be taken into account that, beyond European trends, countries such as France They are betting heavily on electric vehicles of the size that Vigo and Zaragoza will manufacture. It is not only a question of how many electric cars are sold in Spain. Furthermore, Spain is positioned as an interesting country to produce automobiles that, in addition to having a lot to gain from customers, are of special interest to manufacturers. The new regulations will force them to sell more electric vehicles, so greater competition is expected at the most reasonable prices. The award of STLA Small also confirms that Spain is making a especially competitive gap between countries willing to manufacture cars that leave very little profit margin for manufacturers. The smaller and more electrified a car is, the less profit a company can make from it, which is why Spain feared that part of the production of these cars would end up in Eastern Europe. Morocco either Türkiye. As is now happening with Stellantis, the Volkswagen Group also confirmed that Martorell will be the indicated factory to produce its smaller electric cars. An investment that also adds a billion-dollar battery plantthat of Sagunto. The energy and labor costs in Spain are being quite an attraction for manufacturers who have important conflict fronts open in Italy either Germanywhere they propose thousands of layoffs or factory closures. Photo | Stellantis In Xataka | The ghost of PureTech engines haunts Stellantis: it will pay for repairs from 2022 to 2024 if these conditions are met