Renault Group will invest €600 million ($685 million) in its Valladolid and Palencia plants through 2030 to build five models, including its first battery-electric cars made in Spain, even as registrations of the Renault brand in Spain have fallen 13.7% this year.
Two of the five models will be C-segment electric vehicles built in Palencia on the new RGEV Medium 2.0 platform, Renault Group Spain said.
The other three are hybrids, and two of them will continue models Valladolid already builds, according to the plants’ labour agreement and Renault’s industrial director for Spain.
The investment combines Renault’s own money with national and regional public funding, the company said, without giving the split.
What Renault Announced
The €600 million covers 2026 to 2030 and falls under futuREady, the strategic plan Renault presented in March, according to the release as published by Castilla y León Económica.
Palencia will receive RGEV Medium 2.0, a native EV platform with an 800-volt architecture, up to 750 km of WLTP range and up to 1,400 km in range-extender versions, the company said.
Renault will also add a battery assembly line at its Carrocerías body plant in Valladolid.
“Por primera vez en los 75 años de historia de Renault Group en España, las fábricas españolas producirán vehículos eléctricos,” the release said.
That translates as “For the first time in Renault Group’s 75-year history in Spain, the Spanish factories will produce electric vehicles.”
That holds for cars. Renault did build an electric quadricycle, the Twizy, in Valladolid from 2012 until production moved to South Korea in 2019.
The plan “helps secure the future of more than 6,000 direct jobs,” Renault said, according to Reuters.
Two EVs and Three Hybrids
Renault’s release named no models.
José Martín Vega, Renault Group’s Industrial Director for Spain and Morocco, gave the fullest account in an interview with ABC on June 30.
“Inicialmente, son tres en Palencia y dos en Valladolid,” he said, referring to the five models. That translates as “Initially, there are three in Palencia and two in Valladolid.”
“Los dos van a ser eléctricos y uno de ellos seguramente tenga también la versión Range Extended,” he said of the two new Palencia cars. That translates as “Both will be electric, and one of them will probably also have a range-extended version.”
He confirmed both are SUVs and said “el buque insignia de Renault se va a basar en esos dos coches” (“Renault’s flagship will be based on those two cars”).
He described Valladolid’s two models as “más bien la continuidad de Captur y Symbioz” (“more the continuation of the Captur and Symbioz”).
The first Palencia EVs should be in production “hacia el final del 2028” (“towards the end of 2028”), with the Valladolid models following “hacia el 2029 seguramente” (“probably around 2029”), he said.
The cars will use “baterías con tecnología LFP,” or lithium iron phosphate, he said. The LFP packs will be assembled in Valladolid.
The plants’ 2026–2028 collective agreement assigns Palencia two vehicles on a “multienergy platform” and one “hybrid long life” model.
The agreement makes those terms conditional on the allocations materialising, the newspaper reported.
Spanish trade publication La Tribuna de Automoción has reported the two EVs as a second-generation Scenic E-Tech and an electric successor to the Rafale.
It has reported production starting in June 2028 for the Rafale and April 2029 for the Scenic, with an electric Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross from July 2029, according to electrive.
Renault has not confirmed those models or dates.
Falling Sales in Spain
The investment comes as Renault loses ground in the Spanish market after a strong 2025.
Renault sold 83,309 passenger cars and 22,680 light commercial vehicles in Spain last year, its best market share since 2018, and the Clio was the country’s second-best-selling car.
Renault brand registrations in Spain fell 13.7% to 47,264 cars in the first eight months of 2026, while the overall market grew 6.3% to 818,201, according to ANFAC, the Spanish carmakers’ association.
That leaves Renault fourth among brands in Spain, behind Toyota, Volkswagen and Seat, with about 5.8% of the market.
Dacia, Renault Group’s budget brand, fell 6.4% to 40,510 vehicles and ranks sixth. The Dacia Sandero remains Spain’s best-selling model, with 23,769 registrations, down 6.1%, according to ANFAC.
The Renault Clio fell 23.2% to 12,484, the Captur 10.2% to 11,724 and the Austral 8.5% to 6,543.
The Symbioz, built in Valladolid, was the exception, rising 34.1% to 6,860.
In August alone, Renault brand registrations fell 2.5% to 3,700 in a Spanish market that grew 11.8%.
Losing Share in Europe
Renault Group’s registrations in the European Union fell 4.0% to 781,285 cars in the first eight months of the year, while the EU market grew 5.3%, according to ACEA, the European carmakers’ association.
Its EU market share fell to 10.4% from 11.4% a year earlier.
The Renault brand was up 0.3% at 436,371, while Dacia fell 9.8% to 337,240, ACEA said.
Alpine rose 43.0% to 7,674.
Battery-electric cars took 21.7% of the EU market in the period, up from 15.8%, according to ACEA.
Renault Group sold 821,092 passenger cars and light commercial vehicles in Europe in the first half, down 1.3%, the company said in July.
Fully electric models made up 26.6% of Renault brand passenger car sales in Europe in the half, up 10.3 percentage points, and electrified models 66.3%, the company said.
Group revenue rose 9.5% to €30.25 billion ($34.5 billion) in the first half, but the operating margin fell to 5.2% from 6.0%.
The Plants Today
Valladolid builds the Captur, Symbioz, Mitsubishi ASX and Mitsubishi Grandis. Palencia builds the Austral, Espace and Rafale.
The two plants built about 343,000 vehicles in 2025, of which Valladolid built about 229,000 units.
Palencia has run on a single morning shift since late June, adjusted to 455 vehicles a day.
“Palencia moves to one shift, and for two years we will be somewhat in the desert,” Martín Vega told ABC in June.
Renault is considering halting Palencia from October 1 to 18 to adjust to “current fluctuations in demand in Europe.”
Valladolid stopped production of the Captur and Symbioz for a day on Friday, September 25, for the same reason, El Correo de Burgos reported.
A Labour Deal First
The model allocation followed a tense labour negotiation.
Renault and unions reached a preliminary 2026–2028 agreement on May 26 at the Industry Ministry, with Minister Jordi Hereu mediating.
Renault’s Bursa plant in Turkey had already won production of the new Clio for Europe, and Morocco competes on lower costs.
Public Aid
Renault has not said how much of the €600 million is public money.
Spain’s Industry Ministry provisionally awarded Renault €58.4 million ($67 million) in July 2025 under the third call of its PERTE VEC programme, €36.0 million for Palencia and €22.4 million for Valladolid.
Renault has also turned down aid when plans changed. In January, it gave up €27.7 million ($32 million) for a Valladolid battery project designed for 300,000 units a year.
In October 2024, it gave up €31.4 million ($36 million) for an EV platform in Valladolid, citing slow EV sales growth.
