Catalonia and Barcelona strengthen their commitment to sustainable mobility with Chinese company Chery

Roger Torrent, Minister for Business and Labour, led a visit this Friday to the R&D facilities of the multinational Chery in Shanghai as part of his institutional trip to China jointly with a Barcelona City Council delegation led by the Deputy Mayor for Economy, Tax, Economic Promotion, and Tourism, Jordi Valls. The meeting has served to learn firsthand about the advanced technologies used by the Chinese automotive multinational.

The institutional meeting served to reaffirm this collaboration and the commitment of the Catalan government and the City Council to sustainable mobility as a strategic sector. At the same time, it confirmed Chery's commitment, together with the Catalan company Ebro, to start production at the end of the year of the first electric vehicle with Chinese technology to come entirely from a European production line (Omoda 5 model). The new joint venture will operate from the Ebro factory, located in the former Nissan plant in Barcelona's Zona Franca.

The joint venture between Chery and Ebro in Catalonia will initially assemble Omoda 5 electric vehicles, while the next models to be produced at the plant will be the Ebro S700 and S800 SUVs. In the medium term, the Chinese multinational's commitment is to carry out the entire manufacturing process at the Zona Franca plant. The aim is to produce 50,000 electric vehicles annually by 2027 as part of this project.

“The government has been focusing on promoting a sector as strategic for our country as the automotive sector and, in particular, sustainable mobility”

Roger Torrent, Minister for Business and Labour

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According to the Minister of Economy and Labour, "the government has been focusing its efforts for some time to promote a sector as strategic for our country as the automotive sector and, in particular, sustainable mobility". Torrent stressed that "China has become one of the most important investors on a global scale and the first vehicle manufacturer in the world, and for this reason, it is a priority country for the investment attraction strategy in Catalonia". In this sense, after visiting Chery's R&D center and meeting with representatives of the company, the Minister stressed that "the commitment of the Chinese multinational to the automotive industry in Catalonia is clear, a commitment that is demonstrated by the new project that they will promote together with Ebro, which also consolidates the country's potential as a destination for projects with high added value".

The Catalan delegation in Shanghai also included Oriol Alcoba, Director General of Industry; Qiaoshan Xue, Head of the China Desk at ACCIÓ-Catalonia Trade & Investment; and Miquel Rodríguez, Manager of Economic Promotion at the Barcelona City Council.

Representing the Chinese multinational, they were received by Wang Yuxin, President of Chery Shanghai R&D and Engineering Institute, that has led a tour through the facilities, meeting after with Charlie Zhang, Vice-president of Chery International, and the General Director Adjunct for the European Region of Chery, Byyn Xiao.

A trade mission in China to position Catalonia

Minister Torrent is leading an institutional trip to China this week, aiming to position Catalonia as one of the most attractive regions in Europe for attracting foreign productive investment projects, specifically in the automotive industry. This Saturday, the Minister for Business and Labour will participate in the China Automotive Forum, the country's main automotive sector event. The institutional trip is part of the initiatives driven by ACCIÓ-Catalonia Trade & Investment—the agency for business competitiveness belonging to the Ministry for Business and Labour—through the China Desk, an office working to increase the attraction of investment projects for production plants, headquarters, or technological centers of Chinese companies, primarily in the mobility and health sectors.

This term, Torrent has already traveled to China on several occasions, where he announced the attraction of investment projects such as those from the Chinese multinational Wanhua, one of the largest in the world in the chemical industry, which will open an innovation center in Catalonia with the support of ACCIÓ-Catalonia Trade & Investment. Additionally, at the end of 2023, it was announced that the Chinese textile company Shanghai Jingqingrong Garment will open its first overseas production plant in Catalonia, following a meeting with a delegation from the Government.

China, a strategic market

Currently, there are more than 200 subsidiaries of Chinese companies established in Catalonia, representing an exponential growth in recent years that has made China the third most important non-European country in terms of the number of subsidiaries in Catalonia, only preceded by the United States and Japan.

With 27 million vehicles produced in 2022, China is the world's leading automobile manufacturer, far surpassing the United States (10 million), Japan (7.8 million), and India (5.5 million). It is a strategic country for the Government, being one of the largest investors globally but one of the least established in Europe in the manufacturing sector.