Automotive supplier Sumitomo Electric Bordnetze (SEBN) has announced plans to build a new production facility in Cuenca, Spain, dedicated to manufacturing high-voltage wiring harnesses for Seat and Volkswagen electric vehicles.
This new facility will mark SEBN’s first production site in Spain and its 23rd plant globally. Established in 1986 as a joint venture between Volkswagen and Siemens under the name Volkswagen Bordnetze, the company was acquired by the Japanese Sumitomo Group in 2006 and subsequently renamed.
Sven-Uwe Niemann, SEBN Board Member and Executive Director of Supply Chain Management, NAFTA Region, and Business Center, stated, “Our investment in this production facility secures SEBN’s position as a major supplier of high-voltage harnesses for the Volkswagen Group. The new site will also bring highly skilled jobs to the region.”
The Cuenca facility will produce high-voltage wiring harnesses for Seat’s urban electric car family manufactured in Martorell and Volkswagen’s electric cars produced in Navarra. High-voltage cables play a crucial role in electric vehicles, covering the vehicle’s energy and data requirements, including charging cables.
SEBN plans to establish the necessary production capacity in Cuenca and employ a highly automated production process to ensure high product quality and quantity. The concept for automated production of high-voltage cable systems was developed in collaboration with Sumitomo Electric Group’s sister companies, leveraging automation to enhance efficiency as product complexity decreases in the high-voltage range.
The decision to establish the plant in Cuenca aligns with SEBN’s strategy of proximity to customers and supports the Volkswagen Group and Seat’s efforts to develop Spain as a hub for electromobility under the “Future: Fast Forward” project.
The new facility is expected to employ around 350 people. SEBN has been present in Spain since 2001 with a customer service center in Pamplona and a development center in Martorell since 2012. Production of the Volkswagen Group’s small electric cars at the Martorell plant is scheduled to commence at the end of 2025 with the Cupra Raval.
In a related development, Hyundai Mobis has started construction of a plant in Navarra, Spain, for the production of battery systems for the Volkswagen Group. Scheduled to commence operations in 2026, the plant will supply up to 360,000 battery systems annually for the Volkswagen Group’s future small electric cars manufactured in Pamplona, located 14 kilometers away.
