The eagerly awaited arrival of the Chinese marque from the Chery Group, Omoda, to Spain remains a measured, slow burn. The brand has announced through its partner Ebro that production of the Omoda 5 models initially planned for this year will be delayed by about one year, likely after the summer of 2025. In the meantime, the same company, Ebro, will keep the assembly line moving by starting production of the S700 and S800 next month, although they are awaiting final homologation for these vehicles. The production approach will continue to follow the DKD model, which involves assembling partly finished components in origin (Wuhu, China).
While this isn’t bad news, it is a reminder that Omoda should play a pivotal role in the revival of the Barcelona Free Zone plant. In the weeks after Chery’s large-scale share listing in Spain, workers began to believe more strongly that assembly would shift to full production within the plant. The latest delay for Omoda needles the optimism, since maintaining a steady production pace with DKD assembly without actual production isn’t feasible. Patience is required for a bit longer.
Model shift
The Omoda 5 is expected to arrive in 2025, with the Redress from Chery indicating that a full welding and painting line will be added. This investment would steer production toward CKD, where vehicles are assembled with more components produced domestically rather than simply assembled. For the first production year, about 5,000 vehicles are projected.
Despite appearing as a tremendous opportunity for the Chinese brand to sidestep the European Union’s planned tariffs on electric Chinese vehicles, staying idle for a year is not appealing. In fact, the Omoda 5 began its life with a combustion version that was not affected by tariffs, while the electric variant of the same model was not expected before mid-2025.
From the Ebro-Chery consortium, there is acknowledgement that the regulatory changes announced by the European Commission last June—affecting imports of electric cars from China—along with optimistic sales forecasts for EBRO models, have prompted a reorientation of the plant’s production strategy.
November start
The schedule for Ebro is to begin producing the S700 from November 18, followed by the S800 from November 28, and the S400 arriving in June 2025. These models are built on existing Chery Tiggo platforms used in several markets. They will be the first to roll off the assembly lines at the factory, with one shift employing roughly a hundred workers.
A second shift is planned for spring next year and a third for summer, aiming to reach around 300 jobs. The objective is to secure employment through the reindustrialization pool as production lines are assigned to workers currently employed on training contracts. Start of activity would feature one shift, with a second shift in April 2025 and a third shift by mid-year, to accommodate growing production needs.