In 2025, Ford’s Almussafes plant in Valencia produced 98,591 vehicles, down 18.69% from 2024 and far below its capacity of more than 400,000 a year. One of Spain’s biggest industrial sites is now running at a fraction of its potential.
Spanish taxpayers are also bearing the cost. To keep jobs alive during the slump, authorities have spent over 35.2 million euros on wage supplements. Millions more have gone to unemployment benefits, while social security breaks and targeted subsidies from the PERTE program for electric vehicles have added further support. The total bill runs into the tens of millions, aimed at preventing the region’s industry from collapsing. Independent analysts put the plant’s historic capacity at 400,000 to 500,000 vehicles a year; current output is less than a quarter of that. In 2025, Almussafes focused almost exclusively on the Ford Kuga, while its battery shop assembled 83,879 batteries for local vehicles.
Ford’s shift to electric cars left Almussafes in limbo. Production ended for the Mondeo and S-Max, followed by the Galaxy and Transit Connect, and output fell sharply. The company and government responded with temporary layoffs and voluntary exits, alongside early retirements and buyouts. These measures have been extended or renegotiated more than 18 times in five years. Levante-EMV reports that production fell from over 211,000 vehicles in 2023 to 121,250 in 2024, then to 98,591 in 2025.
Workers who remain face long stretches of regulated inactivity. Some have taken buyouts or left voluntarily; others are still waiting. There is talk of a new hybrid platform and a 30% stake deal with China’s Geely Holding Group, but large change remains out of reach. Several independent sources say labor talks are dragging on. Pay and working conditions remain unsettled for more than 4,100 employees as of September 2026.
The strain reaches beyond Almussafes. Spain’s car industry faces pressure from the global shift to electric vehicles and the rise of Chinese manufacturers. Reports on the plant have highlighted what the transition costs workers and the public. Independent reviews say the Ford-Geely joint project, announced in July, gives Ford a 66% stake and Geely 34%. Production is set to start in the first half of 2027, with the first new vehicles expected to roll out in 2028. Levante-EMV reports that the joint venture is set to bring at least two Geely electric vehicles and one new Ford model to Almussafes on a multi-energy platform. The project aims to revive output and secure the plant’s future role in Europe’s changing automotive industry.
Geely’s promised investment is now basic to the plant’s future. Almussafes must adapt to the electric age, but public funding to support jobs cannot continue indefinitely. The next few years will test the factory’s ability to recover and how far Spanish society is willing to go to keep it operating as it pursues a new industrial future.
