Volkswagen increases electric car investment in Spain to $10.6 billion

Volkswagen and its partners will invest 10 billion euros ($10.6 billion) to make electric vehicles and batteries in Spain, the automaker said on Thursday.

The automaker also announced a partnership deal with Iberdrola which will set up a solar park to partly power the battery plant to be constructed in the municipality of Sagunto near Valencia.

Spanish electric utility company Iberdrola is set to invest 500 million euros in the electrification plan, its CEO Ignacio Sanchez Galan said.

“We will electrify the second-largest car producer in Europe (Spain) with a new giga-factory of batteries and the production of electric cars in two plants,” Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess said.

Diess added that the company plans for a full ecosystem of providers from lithium extraction to the assembly of batteries.

Diess was speaking during a visit with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to the site the company will construct the factory.