Slovak battery cell manufacturer InoBat has secured a grant of €54 million and a loan of €456,000 to build a gigafactory in Valladolid, northern Spain. The plant is expected to create 260 jobs.
InoBat’s plans to build a battery cell factory in Valladolid have been public since 2022. The facility aims to reach a production capacity of 32 GWh by 2027, with full capacity expected by 2029. InoBat counts a well-known investor among its backers: Chinese battery cell manufacturer Gotion High-Tech, whose largest shareholder is Volkswagen, acquired a 25 per cent stake in InoBat in 2023.
The grant of €54 million comes from the Spanish Ministry of Industry and Tourism under the eMobility support programme PERTE, which has previously provided multi-hundred-million-euro subsidies to Seat, Stellantis, and VW’s battery division PowerCo.
According to the ministry, InoBat plans a total investment of €712 million for the Valladolid gigafactory, creating 260 direct and around 500 indirect jobs.
The Valladolid plant will be built alongside a joint gigafactory with Gotion in Šurany, southern Slovakia. The first phase of the Šurany facility, with an annual capacity of 20 GWh, is expected to start production in 2026. So far, InoBat operates only a pilot line in Voderady, Slovakia. The company still needs to demonstrate that it can produce battery cells at industrial scale with low scrap rates—a challenge that has driven companies like Northvolt into insolvency. With Gotion as a partner, however, InoBat hopes to have the expertise needed to succeed.
InoBat founder Marian Boček’s reputation was recently affected by the failed takeover of Munich-based air taxi developer Lilium. Boček reportedly promised an investment of €150 million, partly to secure InoBat as Lilium’s battery supplier. The funding never materialised, and Lilium filed for insolvency again in February 2025.
mintur.gob.es
