Ford has informed the central government that it is withdrawing its requests for aid from the second call of the Strategic Project for the Recovery and Economic Transformation of the Electric and Connected Vehicle (Perte VEC), both in the value chain line and in the battery line. .
“The national and regional governments have been fundamental partners in securing Ford’s new investments in Valencia. Although we have informed the Government of the withdrawal of our requests for aid to Perte, in coherence with the new product plan for Europe, we hope to continue our collaboration with both governments,” said the company, which has already withdrawn from the first call of the Perte VEC in 2022 due to its deadlines.
Specifically, Ford had applied for both lines of the new call for the Strategic Project for the Recovery and Economic Transformation of the Electric and Connected Vehicle (Perte VEC II).
The Ministry of Industry had awarded it 37.6 million euros – which the company had accepted – from the battery line to establish a battery assembly plant at the Almussafes factory and Ford had also requested aid for the chain. value of the electric vehicle.
However, the firm has announced that the Almussafes plant will manufacture 300,000 units per year of a new vehicle “that will not be 100% electric” and that it will be launched in mid-2027. This is the reason that forces it to leave the Perte .
This model “in global terms of workload and employment will guarantee higher levels than what an electric platform would mean today,” the union explained after a meeting last Friday with the European management of the multinational.
The Valencian factory was chosen in 2022 to produce Ford’s new electric vehicle platform starting in 2025. This was reflected in an electrification agreement that was to ensure the workload in the coming years in Almussafes and which implied in the the company salary and flexibility measures conditional on electrification. The award did not prevent the workforce from having to be resized with an ERE that has affected 1,124 workers.
However, last November the company indicated that it was studying taking a “change of step” and was postponing decisions on the investments necessary to adapt the plant to this production, and in March Ford’s global president, Jim Farley, committed to allocating the Valencian factory the production of a multi-energy passenger vehicle, while deciding on the future of the factory’s electrification. That commitment was made last week with the announcement of the manufacturing of 300,000 units of the new model.
