Wallbox will install a new factory in the Free Zone and create 200 jobs

After closing two rounds for 56 million euros in one year, Wallbox takes another step in its growth. With an investment of nine million euros, it will install a new factory in the Zona Franca of Barcelona, where its corporate headquarters are located. The new plant will join those it currently has in Sant Andreu de la Barca and China, and will allow it to double its production capacity and will serve to cover the growing demand it is registering in the more than 60 markets where it sells its smart charging solutions for electric vehicles.

The factory in the Zona Franca will occupy a plot of 16,800 square meters, with a warehouse of 11,220 square meters. It is located on Calle D, where until now the logistics company Grupesa was located, next to the industrial laundry company Elis. In the coming months, the necessary adaptation works will be carried out to adapt the facilities to Wallbox's operations. The start-up of the production lines is scheduled for the fourth quarter of this 2021.

The CEO of Wallbox, Enric Asunción, and the special delegate of the State in the Consorcio de la Zona Franca (CZFB), Pere Navarro, signed the lease agreement for the plot this Monday, for a period of 10 years. Asunción has defended that the new plant represents "the first stone for the creation of a global electromobility hub in Spain", taking into account the infrastructure and environment that exists in the Zona Franca. For Navarro, investments like this reaffirm his objective of leading the transition towards a new economy.

Framed in the expansion plan that the plant represents, Wallbox plans to double its workforce, reaching 800 workers by the end of the year, an objective to which the 33 million euros obtained in its last round must contribute. In the Zona Franca plant, about 200 workers will be hired.

How the new factory will be

The electric charging company foresees that the new facilities will be intelligent, with decentralized and automated decision-making, and interconnected through the Internet of Things (IoT). In the adaptation works of the current warehouse, a design will be applied that allows eliminating waste generation and the use of eco-efficient materials, as it has already done in the corporate headquarters of the Zona Franca.

Likewise, they will have an energy management system that will allow the reuse of 75% of the energy consumed in the production process, regenerating it and returning it to the internal energy grid, and photovoltaic solar panels will be installed, which will serve to achieve between 30% and 60% of production with solar energy. The company expects to further expand photovoltaic energy and cover up to 90% of the energy demand for production.