Chinese investment in Spain is no longer limited to purchasing. It is beginning to manufacture. And this time, Aragón is not observing the phenomenon from the outside: it is at the center of it.
Automotive, batteries, energy, and logistics now concentrate the interest of Chinese companies in the country. In this landscape, the battery gigafactory that CATL is building alongside Stellantis in Figueruelas makes the Aragonese community a key player in the new industrial relationship between Spain and China, and one of the clearest signs of where this investment is headed.
A decade ago, Chinese capital primarily arrived through acquisitions of existing companies, real estate operations, or minority stakes. That pattern has changed. Now factories, technology, and long-term projects are arriving.
The data confirms this. According to elEconomista, accumulated Chinese investment in Spain has tripled over the past ten years and is now around 12 billion euros. The volume is one data point. The type of project attracting that money is another, more revealing aspect.
The report Chinese FDI in Spain: Global Outlook 2026, produced by ICEX-Invest in Spain and KPMG, points in the same direction: automotive and batteries are gaining importance among the activities of Chinese companies operating in Spain. Spain is no longer just a market to sell cars; it has also become a place to manufacture them. Within this shift, Figueruelas is already one of the notable names.
From selling cars to manufacturing them here
The automotive sector is the clearest example. Chinese brands have gained market share in Europe at a notable pace in recent years, and the logical step—relocating part of the production to the continent—has already begun.
Spain has arguments to attract this production: an industrial tradition in the sector, operational plants, a consolidated supplier network, and good logistical infrastructure. Its geographical position also serves as a gateway to Europe, North Africa, and Latin America.
According to ICEX and KPMG, these are the reasons cited by Chinese companies: infrastructure, logistics platforms, quality of life, and good institutional relations between the two countries. The report describes Spain as a potential bridge to Europe and Latin America.
There are already successful examples. In Barcelona, the alliance between Ebro Motors and Chery has revived the old Nissan plant in the Zona Franca. By mid-2026, both companies had invested over 150 million euros in its transformation, according to ICEX data. To this project, others related to electric vehicles, particularly one of its most critical components—the batteries—are now being added.
Figueruelas, Aragón’s point on the map
This is where Figueruelas comes into play. Just a few kilometers from Zaragoza lies one of the largest industrial projects with Chinese capital proposed in Spain: the battery gigafactory of Stellantis and CATL, with a planned investment of around 4.1 billion euros. This amount positions Zaragoza as a relevant piece in the future European electric vehicle chain.
The choice of Aragón is not a coincidence. The community has been building experience in the automotive sector around the Figueruelas plant and its ancillary industry for decades. This is complemented by Zaragoza’s logistical position, on the axis connecting Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, and the northern peninsula, along with a growing availability of renewable energy.
The arrival of CATL changes more than just the scale of the project. This is no longer just about cars: batteries have become one of the decisive components in global industrial competition. Whoever controls their production—components, technology, supply chain—will retain a significant portion of the value of the automobile in the coming decades.
Thus, Figueruelas matters beyond Aragón. It is part of the European race to maintain industrial capacity in the face of technological transformation in the sector, an area where China has the advantage in much of the electric mobility technologies.
An opportunity for the Spanish industry
The timing could not be more delicate for the European industry. The transition to electric vehicles requires enormous investments just as Asian competitors rapidly gain market share and technological capability.
Spain can take advantage of this context. While other European countries face plant closures and cuts, several Asian manufacturers and suppliers are studying—or already executing—projects on Spanish territory.
The opportunity seems evident: modernizing factories, sustaining industrial employment, and entering new value chains with foreign capital. But it raises an uncomfortable question: how much of that added value truly remains in Spain?
It is not the same to assemble products designed in another country as it is to build a domestic industrial ecosystem. The challenge is for local suppliers, technology centers, engineering, specialized training, and companies capable of integrating into these supply chains to grow around the large plants. The real impact of these investments will depend on this.
Spain, caught between China and Europe
The increasing presence of Chinese capital cannot be viewed in isolation from geopolitics. The European Union has a relationship with Beijing that is difficult to summarize in a single term: a commercial partner, industrial competitor, and rival in several strategic technologies, all at once.
Electric mobility embodies this contradiction. Europe wants to protect its industry from Chinese competition but needs its investment and technology to accelerate its own energy transition.
The establishment of Chinese factories on European soil alters part of the landscape: companies that previously exported from China are beginning to produce here and form alliances with local partners. Spain appears willing to play this card.
The SAIC Motor project in Ferrol confirms this: an initial investment of 200 million euros and a capacity for 120,000 vehicles per year. This operation has also sparked a debate about security, due to the proximity of strategic military facilities, indicating that Chinese capital will increasingly be analyzed through two lenses: the economic and the geopolitical.
From 12 billion to a deeper relationship
The last decade makes one thing clear: the economic relationship between Spain and China is changing in nature. The question is no longer just how much capital arrives, but in what sectors it is invested, what technology it brings, and what capacity Spain has to convert that investment into its own productive fabric.
For Aragón, the question is very concrete. The Figueruelas gigafactory positions the community within a global industrial transformation, and opportunities may arise for suppliers, logistics companies, technology centers, universities, and firms specializing in energy, mobility, and the circular economy.
Success will not be measured by the billions invested by a large Chinese company in Aragón, but by whether that investment leaves behind knowledge, suppliers, and talent capable of surviving it.
The accumulated 12 billion explains
