Volkswagen plans to produce a total of three million fully electric small cars at its Spanish (Seat) plants in Martorell and Pamplona between 2025 and 2030. The total number can be even higher with the sub-20-000 euro entry-level model announced for 2027. But, probably, the latter won’t be built in Spain.

This was announced by Seat at its annual press conference this week. The Spanish VW daughter is investing three billion euros in the conversion of its Martorell plant near Barcelona in order to start production there in 2025 of the VW ID.2 recently presented as a concept and the Cupra offshoot, based on the UrbanRebel concept, which will presumably be called Raval. Both cars are planned to have a starting price of less than € 25 000.

The latter will probably be the first to go into production, followed by the ID.2. There won’t be a Skoda version of this B-segment EV in hatchback form; instead, Skoda foresees a small crossover that will probably be called Elroq. The VW brand will have its own version of this small SUV, to be called logically the ID.2 X. Both models will be built in Seat’s Pamplona plant in Spain.

+500 000 per year

With a target of three million small EVs to be produced by 2030, this means that both Spanish plants will crank out over 500 000 units per year. VW brand boss Thomas Schäfer stated in a recent interview that they were aiming for annual sales of at least 100 000 units per model per year.

According to Schäfer, that’s the break-even point to be profitable. However, the three million vehicles now planned in five years exceed this bottom target by one million units. At the moment, it is not known how sales will be distributed among the model series and the plants in Martorell (small cars) and Pamplona (SUVs). Of course, that will also be determined by the popularity of each individual model.

The total sales of small electric cars by 2030 in the VW Group are likely to be even higher than the three million units from the Spanish plants. As announced last week, VW is also planning an even cheaper electric vehicle model for less than 20 000 euros by 2027 at the latest. This car is likely to be called the ID.1.

In the interview with the German specialized car magazine Automobilwoche, Schäfer left open whether the model would be built in Europe or it would come off the production line in other plants on other continents for cost reasons.

Tavascan in China

A few days ago, Volkswagen gave the official go-ahead for the construction of the second battery cell factory of its subsidiary PowerCo. As Seat now writes, the brand is also working on an assembly plant for battery packs and a second vehicle platform for Martorell.

The Cupra brand is initially responsible for the electrification strategy at Seat. Cupra will launch its second BEV model after the Born in 2024 with the Tavascan, a compact SUV based on VW’s MEB platform. This car will be produced in China. This will be followed in 2025 by the aforementioned Cupra Raval small EV produced in Spain.