While the Italian government wastes time annoying Alfa Romeo for calling Milan a car built in Poland, the other European countries get serious and immediately grab gigantic production possibilities thanks to the arrival of Chinese manufacturers. The same thing happened years ago with the Japanese and now history repeats itself.
Yes, because the giant Chery has just announced the opening of its first European factory, in Spain, precisely in the former Nissan site in Barcelona, all through a joint venture with the Spanish group Ebro-EV Motors. The role of the Spanish government in this affair was very important and the Minister of Industry Jordi Hereu personally dealt with a delegation from Chery, in the presence of members of the Catalan regional government.
In short, the road is open and we are only at the beginning because – it should be remembered – Chery is the second Chinese manufacturer to establish itself in Europe, after BYD formalized the agreement last February for the construction of its first European plant in Hungary.
Now the ball is in the hands of Dongfeng Motor Group which is negotiating with various countries – according to Bloomberg also with Italy – for an agreement regarding the production of 100,000 cars. We'll see how it ends, but the history of Chery and the Spanish government teaches a lot: the former Nissan site in Barcelona, which once employed 3,000 people, had been closed for some time (it closed in December 2021) and was also torn to pieces because part of this industrial infrastructure was sold to motorcycle manufacturer Silence and EV Motors. However, local authorities, together with EV Motors, were trying to attract another investor for a complete relaunch of the site.
A similar story, in short, to that of many gigantic Italian production plants which could now be saved by other Chinese manufacturers because the very young Chery (a state-owned company founded in 1997) which now produces two million cars a year has opened the street.
In fact, let's not forget that Chery's decision to open a plant in Europe comes at a time of tension between Beijing and Brussels. At the beginning of April, the European Union had in fact launched an investigation into public subsidies granted by the Chinese authorities to electric cars, accusing China of distorting competition. This is why opening factories in Europe – for the giants of the country of the Great Wall – would be the definitive solution. And this is why all European countries have entered into important negotiations with Chinese companies. All except one, perhaps too busy studying the names of Italian cars.
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