VW aims to produce 3 million small EV cars in 2025-2030 in Spain, SEAT chief says

BARCELONA (Reuters) -German carmaker Volkswagen plans to produce 3 million small electric vehicles at its two plants in Spain between 2025 and 2030, Wayne Griffiths, the chairman of VW's Spanish unit SEAT, said on Wednesday.

The German car maker is pushing the electrification of its production and plans to build a battery plant in Spain.

Griffiths said SEAT aims to assemble 500,000 electric cars a year in the medium-term at SEAT’s plant in Martorell, outside Barcelona.

Not cutting jobs at the plant is SEAT's priority, he added.

The executive said in a news conference the carmaker is working hard to bring a second platform for electric vehicle production to Martorell, which would increase competitiveness.

Volkswagen has already said it would start producing two electric vehicles at the Martorell plant in 2025 and at VW's Navarra assembly line around the same time - one small car for SEAT’s associated upmarket brand Cupra and another car for the VW brand.

Griffiths told Reuters last month that Volkswagen would submit a new request to Spain for European Union funds as it weighs up whether to manufacture additional new electric vehicles there beyond the ones planned for 2025.

(Reporting by Joan Faus and Inti Landauro; editing by Emma Pinedo and Jason Neely, Kirsten Donovan)