Last week, the reborn Spanish brand EBRO presented its new electric pick-up, taking advantage of the inauguration of the Automobile Barcelona 2023. During the event, the company announced its intention to start manufacturing this model at the end of 2024 at the former Nissan facilities in the Barcelona Free Zone.
The news, which was widely covered in the national media, generated all kinds of reactions on social networks, from those who celebrated the return of a mythical name and the maintenance of employment at the factory, to those who accused EBRO of limiting itself to rebranding a truck of Chinese origin. How true is this last statement? At first, nothing.
Rumors have been circulating for the past few months that the EBRO pick-up could actually be a rebrand of the Dongfeng Rich 6, as both are based on the Nissan Navara D23, which was built in Barcelona until 2021. However, EBRO managers have confirmed that their model has nothing to do with Dongfeng’s.
EBRO has started from the chassis and bodywork of the Navara to take advantage of the Nissan tooling, but the electric propulsion system has been an own development. That is clear if we look at its specifications: while the Spanish will have two 299 CV (220 kW) motors, all-wheel drive and a 100 kWh battery, the Chinese mounts a 163 CV (120 kW) unit, it is rear-wheel drive and its pack is around 68 kWh.
EBRO will fully manufacture its pick-up in Barcelona
From an aesthetic point of view, the EBRO differs from the original Navara by having a restyled front end with round headlights and a slightly modified rear with the lights of the Mercedes-Benz X-Class. The cabin is practically identical to that of the Nissan except for the appearance of a large touch screen, which shows once again that it has nothing to do with the Dongfeng Rich 6, whose dashboard is specific.
The company also highlights that its pick-up will be manufactured in Spain, denying that he is going to import kits from China to assemble them in the Free Zone. More details about its future plans, which include the launch of an electric van derived from the Nissan e-NV200, are expected to be revealed in the coming months.
EBRO will indirectly contribute to the hiring of some 1,200 employees from the plant’s reindustrialization pool. Those responsible for the project estimate that its production capacity will be around 50,000 vehicles per year in 2027.
