Chery’s new Barcelona plant will have an annual production capacity of 150,000 units by 2029 and will be one of the Chinese company’s main export facilities, reports Reuters.

Chery’s Zona Franca plant in Barcelona was first opened in 1983 by Nissan, in partnership with Spanish truck manufacturer Motor Iberica (producing the Patrol, Terrano, and later the Pathfinder, Navara, NV200 and Primastar light truck. Nissan shut down the plant in December 2021.

Earlier this month, Chery announced that it is entering a partnership with EV Motors, a reborn Motors Iberica (Nissan still holds the rights to the old company), to begin joint production at the Zona Franca plant.

EV Motors will build its own Ebro-branded electric pick-up trucks there while Chery will build its own SUV models, including electric ones like the Omoda E5 as well as the upscale Jaecoo J7 at the refurbished plant.

Chery will begin building its cars there by the end of the third quarter of this year. About 150 former Nissan employees will be rehired by the joint venture plant. The total number of hires will eventually reach up to 1,250.

"Once we reach enough (production) scale, we will plan exporting to the rest of Europe and other countries, turning it into one of Chery's main exporting facilities worldwide," said Chery Executive Vice President Guibing Zhang.

Spain's Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez said Chery and EV Motors will invest about 400 million Euros (~RM 2.037 billion) into the plant.