The Ebro Motors Group plant in Barcelona’s Zona Franca has launched the new M1 production line, substantially increasing its capacity. With this step, the Ebro Factory once again leads the way as one of Europe’s leading reindustrialisation projects, breathing new life into the former Nissan plant.

The Spanish company and China’s Chery, through their alliance in which they hold stakes of 60% and 40% respectively, have invested more than €150 million in transforming the factory since it began operations. The new manufacturing line will give it an additional production capacity of 250 cars a day, tripling its previous capacity.

Modernisation and robotisation
The investments made by the alliance to reindustrialise the plant have mainly been focused on its modernisation and robotisation, and on developing new production capabilities such as those delivered by the new M1 line, which has a total length of 696 metres and with 97 seven-metre-long workstations.

More than 200 robots are already involved in various industrial processes. Operators work in teams on the new line, assisted by robotic component supply systems. As a result, the total production time for a vehicle is approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes. The facility is designed to manufacture up to five different models and will be ready to produce up to 50,000 vehicles a year by the end of this year.

Local supplier network
Work is ongoing on the gradual integration of welding and painting operations, which are now in the testing phase and are expected to be fully operational by autumn. This step forward will increase local production, boost the local supplier network and consolidate the plant’s reindustrialisation.

After bringing on board all employees from the former Nissan plant who wanted to join the new project, the Ebro Factory has now grown to employ 1,530 workers, while the Ebro Motors group now has 2,045 employees, including more than 420 engineers.

Spain’s industrial competitiveness
The company, which has revived the historic Spanish Ebro brand, achieved a market share of 2.2% in the first months of 2026, doubling the figure for 2025 as a whole. It is already the fourth-largest brand in the plug-in hybrid market and the eighth largest in the SUV segment among private buyers. 

The president of Ebro Motors Group, Rafael Ruiz, took stock of the company’s still brief journey and its alliance with Chery, “We were pioneers because we realised before many others that innovation in the automotive industry was shifting. Our decision was to seek out a technology partner that would allow us to bring knowledge to Spain and transform it into industry and employment. We firmly believe in Spanish industrial competitiveness, which is why our group is working to create value and drive innovation, contributing to European reindustrialisation from Barcelona.”

^{Photo: Ebro Motors}