The final approval of the Perte automotive aid program shows that 70% of the resources allocated to this sector have not been awarded. The low allocation of resources (877 million of 2,975 possible) does not clear doubts about Volkswagen’s investment of 3,000 million in a battery plant in Sagunt.
Yesterday, from Brussels, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, stated that “we are going to continue working with the Volkswagen-Seat Group and with the rest of the manufacturers so that Spain continues to be a world benchmark for electric cars, including batteries and their manufacture in Spain with important gigafactory projects”, reports Efe. Sánchez added that “there is other aid” that can be given to Volkswagen through the State itself but also on behalf of the autonomous communities.
In the preliminary allocation of the Perte made public in August, Seat obtained 167 million of the 702 million assigned to all the companies that presented a candidacy. The 867 million approved in yesterday’s Perte mean some 165 million more. Even if all the extra money went to Seat, the amount allocated (more than 330 million) would be below that requested by the group and represents a low percentage with respect to the 10,000 million that the group wants to invest in Spain. Some sources point out that Volkswagen would need more than 700 million just for the gigafactory. The approval of the Perte announced yesterday from Vigo by the Minister of Industry, Reyes Maroto, occurs just one day after the doubts in the Volkswagen group transcended due to the volume of aid that the Government was initially considering for the company and especially for its plant of batteries. Until next week the final assignment by companies will not be known.
In its statement, the Ministry of Industry estimates that the aforementioned investment of 877.2 million from Perte will mobilize investments worth 2,250 million euros in the sector. The winning companies will have to present the required guarantees and the forecast is that they will start receiving the money before the end of the year.
Once the first call for this line of support for the industrial value chain has finished, a new call will be opened. Maroto explained that it will begin “to be configured when we finish executing the first one. The money that is not executed in this call will go to the second, which will be launched approximately in the first quarter of next year. The allocation made public yesterday is 25% higher than the one announced in August. Industry sources said that the low execution of the Perte is due to the fact that “it is a pioneering instrument, technically and legally complex and ambitious, which has meant intense learning for both the applicant companies and the public Administration itself.” The same sources added that “aid systems have been explored together with the Commission that, being compatible with European regulations, have allowed the largest amount of aid in recent history to a specific sector of the Spanish economy.”
In the first assignment, it was surprising that the battery gigafactory promoted by the Chinese company Envision and Acciona in Navalmoral de la Mata (Cáceres) was left without aid. On the other hand, Ford, which did obtain aid (106 million) decided to give up the Perte since the production forecasts for Europe introduce a delay in its production plans for Spain.
