China's CATL breaks ground on huge Spanish battery plant - bringing its own workers

By Victoria Waldersee

FIGUERUELAS, Spain (Reuters) -China's CATL will start building Spain's largest battery factory on Wednesday, a 4.1-billion-euro ($4.8 billion) project with Stellantis that highlights Europe's reliance on Chinese technology even as Brussels seeks to tighten trade rules.

The plant in Figueruelas, a town of 1,300 people in northeastern Aragon, is backed by over 300 million euros in EU funds and expected to begin production in late 2026. Around 2,000 Chinese workers will help construct the site, with 3,000 Spanish staff to be hired and trained later, unions said.

"We don't know this technology, these components - we've never made them before," said David Romeral, director general of CAAR Aragon, a network of automotive businesses in Aragon.

"They're years ahead of us. All we can do is watch and learn."

CHEAPER LABOUR, CHEAPER ENERGY

Spain, Europe's second-largest carmaker, is positioning itself as a battery hub thanks to lower labour costs and industrial energy prices about 20% below the EU average. Three more plants are planned, including projects by Envision AESC, Volkswagen's PowerCo, and InoBat.

But technical know-how remains a challenge.

“Before it was mostly German technology, and now it’s Chinese. What difference does it make? Here in Spain, what we offered was always labour,” said Roque Ordovás Mangirón, a Stellantis shipping manager.

The regional government says it is organising work permits for the new arrivals, while also "working intensely" to draw more of the battery supply chain to the region.

Europe's auto associations are pushing for stricter requirements on local sourcing of components in part to protect them from Chinese rivals, as the European Commission prepares to unveil a new set of measures to bolster the sector.

THEY 'KNOW HOW TO MAKE A GIGAFACTORY'

Some Chinese technicians and managers have already arrived in Figueruelas. Several hundred more will follow by year-end, with just under 2,000 expected by the end of next year, CATL has said.

CATL's approach contrasts with its Hungarian site in Debrecen, where it has hired mostly locals to build its largest European plant, but recruitment has lagged targets, according to unions, and production has been delayed to 2026 from late 2025.

"They are the ones who know how to make a gigafactory," said Jose Juan Arceiz, secretary general of union UGT in Aragon, adding unions were waiting for skill requirements from CATL to set up training programmes with the local university.

"As the plant ramps up, there will be more jobs for Spanish workers," he said. "This project needs to succeed, and everyone has to do their part."

($1 = 0.8640 euros)

(Reporting by Victoria Waldersee in Madrid. Additional reporting by Gergely Szakacs in Budapest, Rachel More in Berlin. Editing by Aislinn Laing and Mark Potter)