Chery starts building Ebro PHEVs in Nissan’s former Barcelona plant

The Chinese car manufacturer Chery has kicked off car production in the old Nissan site in Barcelona’s Zona Franca. The first model to roll off the line is the Ebro S700, a plug-in hybrid SUV, which is part of the joint venture between Chery and Spain’s Ebro-EV Motors. Chery’s Omoda 5 will also be produced in Spain, circumventing the EU’s tariffs on Chinese EVs.

Back in April, Chery and Ebro-EV Motors signed a partnership to bring life back to the old Nissan site in Barcelona’s Zona Franca, which had been empty since the end of 2021. Ebro takes the name of an old Spanish commercial vehicle manufacturer and will sell rebadged Chery models for the Spanish market.

Rebadged models initially

The deal between Chery and Ebro-EV Motors is set to create 500 direct jobs immediately, growing to up to 1,250 workers as production scales up to an expected 150,000 vehicles produced annually by 2029. The total investment in the factory amounts to around 400 million euros.

The first model to roll off the production lines in Barcelona is the Ebro S700, a rebadged version of the Chery Tiggo 7 Pro plug-in hybrid SUV. It is 4.51 meters long, features a large dual-screen digital dashboard, and, thanks to a 19.27 kWh battery, claims an electric range of 80 km.

A second Ebro model will follow soon: the S800, based on the Chery Tiggo 8 Plus. This is another plug-in hybrid SUV, but slightly larger (4.72 meters long) and with the same powertrain, achieving 75 km of emissions-free driving.

Omoda 5 made in Europe from 2025

However, Chery’s plans for the Barcelona site go further than building rebadged SUVs for the Spanish market. The Chinese manufacturer also wants to make the Omoda 5 there, a compact electric SUV that rivals models like the Hyundai Kona EV, BYD Atto 3, and the Peugeot E-2008.

Building its models locally would circumvent the EU’s tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles flooding the European market. Chery has been hit with a 21% tariff on top of the existing 10%, which could price its models out of the market.

However, Chery has delayed its plans for European production of its Omoda models by a year in response to the EU tariffs. The Omoda 5 is now expected to roll off the Spanish production lines in Q4 2025