Chery’s Spanish partner said it is working to secure locally made components for its joint venture with the Chinese automaker, so their vehicles can be marketed as European.
EV Motors set plans with Chery earlier this year to produce combustion, hybrid, and electric vehicles together at a Barcelona plant.
Local supplies would reduce import costs and improve productivity, the Spanish company’s president, Rafael Ruiz, said in an interview.
“We’ve analyzed this in great detail and are working to make the vehicle European,” Ruiz said.
Sourcing parts locally is doubly important since the European Union imposed steep tariffs on Chinese EV imports this month.
While the partners plan to assemble cars from kits at the Barcelona site, minimum content requirements must be met for them to be considered EU-made.
Earlier this year, Italy fined a local company for marketing vehicles as Italian-made that were mainly assembled in China.
EV Motors’ Ebro brand is set to start output of conventionally powered sport-utility vehicles this month, Ruiz said.
Chery delayed the production start of its flagship Omoda 5 EV to October 2025 in light of the tariffs, Bloomberg News has reported.
Initially, Ebro will assemble knocked down kits — prebuilt cars that arrive in sections — at the 300,000-square-meter site at Barcelona’s port, a former Nissan factory.
The plant will have capacity to churn out one car every 10 minutes, Ruiz said.
Next year, the factory will open a line for “completely knocked-down” production, a step closer to full-scale manufacturing that will require sourcing many more components locally, Ruiz said.
In that process, the parts come disassembled and need to be welded, painted, and reassembled in the country of import.
Ruiz expressed confidence that the Omoda 5 EV won’t be subject to tariffs as it will be manufactured in Europe.
Spain is Europe’s second-largest auto producer after Germany and has a robust roster of suppliers ranging from makers of bumpers to stamping technologies and motors.
The Barcelona plant will start with 200 workers in two shifts, with a third shift set to be added in February. By 2026, the venture has pledged to employ as many as 1,250 people.
“We want to become a reference in the sector and an example of success,” Ruiz said.
Ebro, founded in 1954, was once part of Nissan. The company listed on Madrid’s BME Growth on Oct. 14 and had a market value of €406 million (R7.7 billion) as of Nov. 14.
Problems for BMW in China
BMW is recalling nearly 700,000 vehicles in China due to coolant pump defects, a fresh setback for the German carmaker that’s reeling from other vehicle faults.
BMW will recall 499,539 cars produced locally, and 188,371 imported vehicles from March 1, 2025, China’s State Administration for Market Regulation said in a statement Friday.
Faulty coolant pump plugs fitted to some models may lead to corrosion or rust, which could cause short circuits and in extreme cases fires, the agency said.
Models affected include locally made 3 Series and 5 Series vehicles, as well as several imported X Series SUVs.
The recall follows a steep drop in deliveries in China, its biggest market by revenue.
In the third quarter, shipments of BMW and Mini brand cars in China slumped by 30%, the sharpest drop in more than four years, the group said last week.
In September, BMW issued a profit warning due to a global recall of 1.5 million cars related to defective braking systems supplied by Continental. Those faults are expected to cost the automaker nearly €1 billion (R19.1 billion) to fix.
The fault was detected in August, and BMW alerted the Chinese authorities as it investigated, a spokesperson said in a statement.
The relevant repairs should take around three hours, and vehicles in Europe aren’t affected, the spokesperson added.
BMW said in a separate statement on Saturday that the planned recall requires some “newly added components” and will start in March next year.
The measures comply with national laws and regulations and have been approved by Chinese authorities, BMW said.
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