Stellantis receives 400 million euros from Spain: Europe's best pupil for batteries?

A few days after the end of the ACC project in Termoli and cast doubt on its US partnership with Samsung SDI, Stellantis is sending a very different signal... from Spain. While the group announced more than 22 billion euros in write-downs The company has just confirmed that it has received over 400 million euros in Spanish government aid to support its battery strategy. A striking contrast, perfectly illustrating the automaker's new doctrine: reduce risk where the economic equation is too fragile, but accelerate where conditions are favourable.

The Aragon, the new electrical center of gravity

Aragon, around the historic Figueruelas site near Zaragoza, is now the focus of a key part of the Group's European electrical ambitions. The region has exceeded 450 million euros in public funding awarded under the Spanish Perte Vec program, supported by Next Generation EU funds. And the main beneficiary is none other than Stellantis.

Since 2022, the automaker has received more than 400 million euros through four successive waves of aid. In the first round, 35 million euros were granted for projects covering the entire electric vehicle value chain. The second phase stepped up the effort: 59.1 million euros for a new battery assembly line and a further 56.2 million to modernize the technological and production capabilities of the Aragon site.

But it's the third tranche that's changing scale. 133.7 million euros have been earmarked for the future gigafactory developed with Chinese partner CATL, a world leader in batteries for electric vehicles. In March 2025, a further 82 million euros were invested in the construction of a gigantic industrial complex adjoining the existing automotive plant.

The latest wave of Perte Vec has added a further 28 million euros, 23 of which in the form of grants, awarded to Contemporary Star Energy, the joint venture set up by Stellantis and CATL to manage the project. The gigafactory alone is now approaching 300 million euros in public funding.

A strategic shift

This massive flow of funding contrasts with recent decisions elsewhere in Europe. While Italy's Termoli gigafactory has been abandoned and Germany's ambitions scaled back, Spain appears to be the place where the industrial equation works.

More competitive labor costs, abundant and cheaper renewable energy, structured public support: all the lights are green. Above all, CATL's LFP technology enables us to produce batteries at lower cost, a key factor for the Group's future electric city cars.

Against this backdrop, Spain is gradually becoming the mainstay of Stellantis' European battery strategy. The aim is no longer to multiply sites in the name of total industrial autonomy, but to concentrate investments where competitiveness is real.

Leapmotor, another piece of the Chinese puzzle

The Spanish scheme does not only benefit Stellantis. Chinese manufacturer Leapmotor also received almost 10 million euros in the latest round of aid. These funds are intended to finance a battery assembly site in Mallén, as well as industrial integration in Figueruelas, where production of Leapmotor models for the European market is due to begin by 2026. All in all, if we add up Stellantis and its Chinese partners, Spain has allocated some 404 million euros of European public funding to the project.

Spain, Europe's “best pupil”?

The contrast is striking. While Italy sees the promise of a major gigafactory slipping away, and the USA is becoming more uncertain politically and economically, Spain is positioning itself as the most effective industrial partner for the Group's electrical transition.

It's not just a question of subsidies. A complete ecosystem is being put in place, combining public subsidies, Chinese technological partnerships and historical industrial roots. Aragon is thus becoming the laboratory for a new model: less ideological, more pragmatic.

Stellantis isn't giving up on electrics. It's just resizing it. And in this new European cartography for batteries, Spain today appears to be the best pupil... and the provisional big winner of the industrial recomposition underway.