German car giant Volkswagen could create a new cable plant in Extremadura

Volkswagen is searching for a location to establish a new cable plant for electric cars in Spain, which could be in Extremadura.

Herbert Diess, CEO of the German car giant, Volkswagen, announced on Saturday, July 9, that he is looking to locate a plant in the autonomous community of Extremadura in Spain. 

The company remains immersed in its plan to be a 100 per cent electric brand and surpass Tesla in the number of zero-emission vehicle sales. A plot in the Casares municipality of Navalmoral de la Mata is apparently suitable.

This was confirmed by sources of okdiario.com, close to the process, who indicated that: “Volkswagen is looking to locate a cable plant, where it can manufacture materials necessary for the production of electric cars, in Extremadura”.

They continued: “The move comes after comes after discarding this region for the construction of the German group’s battery plant, which finally ended up in the Valencian Community due to its commitment to training, the good connections, the port of Sagunto, and the proximity to the Seat Martorell and Volkswagen Navarra plants”.

“Extremadura, the Valencian Community, Cataluña, and Aragon – the last two discarded almost from the beginning – were the autonomous communities that bid to host the first battery plant in Spain. The quality of the land near Navalmoral de la Mata, in the province de Caceres, has made the directors of the German brand once again set their sights on this region”, the source added.

According to the aforementioned sources, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has accelerated this process, since the cable suppliers of the Volkswagen group for the production of electric cars are Ukrainian. In fact, the aforementioned conflict has caused production stops at the German plants located in Zwickau and Dresden, due to the shortage of components.

This is a similar situation that has caused the Japanese Sumitomo Electric Industries, a manufacturer of cabling and fibre optics for vehicles, to decide to transfer its production from Ukraine to Romania and Morocco.

The cost of the operation will be financed, in part, by Volkswagen, one of its main clients, and directly affected by the lack of supplies. A change of location that could be temporary”, they explained.