WUHAN, 24 September (China Economic Net) - Chinese-backed automotive and battery projects are creating jobs and strengthening local supply chains in European cities, city officials said at the 2026 Global Mayors Dialogue in Wuhan.

Daniel de la Fuente Martín, international cooperation ambassador at Valladolid City Hall in Spain, told China Economic Net that Horse Powertrain, a joint venture owned by Geely, Renault and Aramco, has invested €45 million in a new cylinder-head casting facility at its Valladolid plant, which is expected to add 150 permanent jobs.

He also pointed to Chinese battery maker Gotion High-Tech’s planned €950 million complex in Valladolid, where construction is due to begin in 2027. The project, backed by €138 million in Spanish state grants, will comprise a battery recycling plant and a cathode materials plant and is expected to create about 1,000 jobs.

De la Fuente called the Gotion project “very good for the city”. He noted that Valladolid’s automotive industry dates back to the early 1950s and that its university runs laboratories on batteries, new materials and connected vehicles, describing the city as having “a very mature automobile ecosystem” of assembly plants, suppliers and skilled workers. Since 2022, Valladolid has also run a regulatory sandbox in which companies can test new technologies. “The whole city is the laboratory,” he said.

In Austria, Andreas Nitsche, district chairman of St Leonhard in Graz, told China Economic Net that contract manufacturer Magna has been assembling XPeng models for the European market in the city since 2025. “For my city, it’s a good thing that the Chinese EV market is now arriving in Europe,” he said.

Nitsche said Graz’s mobility and technology clusters, together with its rail links, make it a production and logistics hub for European markets.

He added that the energy transition remains a major challenge for traditional European carmakers and that Europe needs more renewable energy and charging infrastructure. He called for closer cooperation with China on cars and energy systems, saying Europe could buy more Chinese energy products and learn from China’s development of wind power.

Both officials spoke on 19 September during a visit to Wuhan’s Optics Valley, where delegates toured a Xiaomi smart home appliance plant and held a roundtable as part of the dialogue.