Ford revised its strategy for the Almussafes plant in Valencia and withdrew from the Electric and Connected Vehicles (VEC) Strategic Economic Recovery and Transformation (PERTE) project. This gives up €106 million in European funds from Next Generation.
The reverse gear comes after Ford communicated this to its partners at PERTE cannot fulfill “the conditions stipulated in the consortium agreement”. The decision has already been communicated to the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade, headed by Reyes Maroto.
Ford says the company regularly updates its global production cycle. The revision to the forecasts for Europe introduces “delaying our production plans for Spain, which means we cannot benefit from the PERTE funding programme“, as company sources confirmed to Invertia.
[Ford Almussafes se dirige a un nuevo ERE pese a los mil despidos realizados desde que estalló la pandemia]
“We would like strengthening the commitment to our plant in Valencia as Ford’s operations in Spain continue to be a core part of our strategy for Europe,” these sources insist.
For this reason, Ford thanks the Spanish authorities “for their cooperation and we hope to work in cooperation with the Government of Spain and the Generalitat Valenciana to seek oropportunities additional funding as we move towards a range of all-electric passenger vehicles by 2030.”
However, Ford assures that they are continuing their plans for Valencia. But more time is needed and the calendar of the new models does not coincide with PERTE’s time.
In June, Almussafes won the German Saarluis plant to produce its new electric cars after tough negotiations that pitted workers from both sides against each other.