the government has backed the plans for such a factory to be built in the country to help reduce reliance on batteries from china and hopes to build it in a publicprivate partnership using eu recovery fundsby joan faus barcelona spain is optimistic that an alternative project will be found to save thousands of jobs threatened by nissans decision to shut its three plants in the barcelona area by the end of the year a government official told reuters a factory to produce electric vehicle battery cells is among 17 proposed projects that have been submitted by 13 companies for the facilities junior industry minister raul blanco said in an interview without specifying who was behind the battery plan advt most proposed projects are linked to electric mobility officials have previously said swedens volta trucks which produces electric vehicles is among the few bidders that have publicly announced their interest in the plants where it could make its volta zero it is part of a consortium of companies that has submitted a bid nissans factories employ around 3000 people directly and up to 20000 indirectly when taking into account suppliers as their closure nears as part of the japanese carmakers global restructuring unions are growing impatient at what they perceive as a lack of progress in finding alternatives they have urged authorities to accelerate their efforts and plan a protest on may 13 in barcelona we are optimistic until the last minute blanco said when asked whether a viable alternative project would emerge to save jobs we are working tirelessly the priority of a task force on the plants future is to guarantee the maximum number of jobs he added however blanco said a planned project by volkswagens spanish brand seat and utility iberdrola to build a battery cell factory in spain would likely be too big to be housed at nissans 500000squaremetre main plant in barcelona the government has backed the plans for such a factory to be built in the country to help reduce reliance on batteries from china and hopes to build it in a publicprivate partnership using eu recovery funds advt blanco said the barcelona site might be more suitable for a smaller battery project from other companies ramon tremosa the business chief of catalonias government asked unions for patience arguing that the plans that have been submitted for the nissan site showed that the northeastern region remained attractive as an auto sector hub reuters published on may 7 2021 at 0129 pm ist telegram facebook copy link be the first one to comment comment now comments comment now read comment 1 all comments post post find this comment offensive choose your reason below and click on the submit button this will alert our moderators to take actions reasons for reporting foul language defamatory inciting hatred against a certain community out of context spam others report join the community of 2m industry professionals subscribe to our newsletter to get latest insights analysis download etauto