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Roughly 2,000 CATL workers to arrive in Spain by end-2026

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Spain's cheap energy, labour draws battery and EV

investments

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Local unions, auto industry welcome Chinese know-how

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Regional government organising permits for new arrivals

By Victoria Waldersee

FIGUERUELAS, Spain, Nov 26 (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 ( STLA ) 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 ( STLA ) 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)