The Minister for Business and Labour, Roger Torrent i Ramió, declared that “the agreement between Chery and Ebro is a project that provides the driving force for our country’s ecosystem” and thanked them “for their efforts to make this joint venture a reality”. Torrent made these statements before the working meeting that took place at Palau de Pedralbes with the managers of the two companies, after the agreement reached last Tuesday to produce vehicles through a joint venture on the Zona Franca site formerly occupied by Nissan.

The Minister of Business and Labour explained that “we had discussed industrial continuity with work linked to the automotive sector, and we have achieved it with this agreement”. Torrent recalled that “the primary objective on our political agenda is Catalonia’s reindustrialisation with twenty-first century industry, and this agreement brings us closer to that objective”. “We will continue to work together so that the project that has been created moves forward with all the impetus it needs,” he concluded.

Key role of the Government

The car company Chery, the Chinese leader in vehicle exports, became interested in Catalonia as a possible location for the manufacture of its vehicles in 2022. On 28 November of that year, a delegation from the company visited a site in Barcelona’s Zona Franca district and met the President of the Government of Catalonia, Pere Aragonès i Garcia and the Minister for Business and Labour, Roger Torrent i Ramió. With the bidding process for the land under way at that time, consideration began to be given to the role the project would play in the reindustrialisation process of the Nissan plant.

The agreement on the reindustrialisation of the land in the Zona Franca district was ratified on 13 March2023, and Goodman and the Electromobility Hub officially became the winning project in the tender process.

Talks with Chery continued and intensified following Torrent’s trip to China. On 20 October 2023, the Government delegation held a working meeting at the Chinese manufacturer’s headquarters and main factory in the city of Wuhu.

The meeting in China was followed by a visit by executives from the company to Barcelona on 22 December, where they met Minister Torrent once again, and continued to make progress with the project and the negotiations.

The contacts and negotiations have since intensified, culminating in the agreement announced this morning.