Gotion builds cathode plant in Valladolid

Gotion High-Tech and Spain's Ministry of Industry have officially confirmed a €950 million investment to construct two battery facilities on a 12-hectare industrial site in Valladolid. The Chinese battery manufacturer will build a cathode active materials plant and a battery recycling plant, with construction starting in 2027.

The Spanish government will contribute €138 million in grants under the PERTE VEC programme, €46 million more than the provisional figure reported in May. That grant is the largest single PERTE allocation directed at upstream battery infrastructure rather than cell assembly, and the first in the programme's history aimed at cathode material and recycling rather than gigafactory production.

Gotion sells lithium-ion battery cells and battery materials to EV manufacturers and energy storage operators. In Valladolid, the output will be cathode material feedstock and recovered battery metals. Its European rivals in cathode materials include BASF, whose Schwarzheide plant is already operational in Germany, EcoPro BM, which began production at its Hungarian facility in late 2025, and the XTC/Orano Neomat joint venture in Dunkirk, scheduled for 2028. Gotion's Valladolid plant is targeting 200,000 tonnes of cathode material annually, roughly double EcoPro BM's Hungarian capacity of 108,000 tonnes.

The project is structured in two phases. Phase one is the recycling plant, budgeted at €411.5 million and capable of processing up to 200,000 tonnes of battery material per year. Phase two is the cathode production plant, budgeted at €539.1 million. Gotion has not yet provided a specific timeline for completing phase one or beginning phase two.

"Gotion aims to bring the plants online very soon. The cathode material plant will be unique in the European Union, and the recycling facility will also feature technological components that set it apart from others." — Óscar Puente, Spanish Minister of Transport.

The Valladolid complex is designed to operate in tandem with Gotion's planned 20 GWh battery cell production plant in Morocco. Recycled black mass from Valladolid feeds cathode production on the same site. Cathode material then feeds the Morocco cell plant. Finished cells enter a Volkswagen supply chain that already includes the PowerCo gigafactory under construction in Sagunto, roughly 400 kilometres south.

Volkswagen is Gotion's largest shareholder. That ownership structure gives Gotion a captive upstream anchor customer that no independent cathode producer currently operating in Europe holds. The relationship extends further: Gotion actively supports Volkswagen in developing the Unified Cell for serial production, meaning the Valladolid plant is not a speculative merchant facility but a supply asset built into an existing industrial commitment.

Gotion assumed control of the Valladolid initiative after Slovak battery cell manufacturer InoBat failed to submit the required guarantees to the Spanish government. Gotion, as an InoBat shareholder, stepped in and displaced it. The episode accelerated rather than delayed the project, and the formalised grant now removes the last material obstacle to breaking ground.

EU Battery Regulation mandates minimum levels of recycled lithium, nickel, and cobalt in new EV batteries from 2031. A plant that recycles end-of-life cells and immediately converts the recovered materials into fresh cathode, located inside the EU's regulatory perimeter, becomes a compliance asset for every gigafactory buyer on the continent from that date forward.

"The Ministry is firmly convinced that Gotion will continue its investments until the total in Spain reaches €5 billion." — Óscar Puente, Spanish Minister of Transport.

The €950 million first phase unlocks a vertically integrated loop that runs from recycled European battery waste through cathode chemistry, across the Strait of Gibraltar to cell production in Morocco, and back into vehicles assembled inside the EU. Spain has just become the upstream anchor of that loop.