By Joan Faus BARCELONA (Reuters) – Volkswagen has picked a site near Valencia for a planned battery cell plant in Spain, which could include U.S. carmaker Ford as a customer or partner, but the project depends on receiving government funds, it said on Wednesday. The German carmaker aims to begin series production at the 40 gigawatt-hour (GWh) plant by 2026, meaning construction would need to start this year. Spain, Europe’s largest carmaker after Germany, last week launched a bidding process for around 3 billion euros ($3.3 billion) – around half in grants – to promote electric vehicle (EV) pr…