It seems that the future of the old Nissan plant in Barcelona is beginning to unravel. The Spanish company QEV Technologies is negotiating the granting of a series of public aid of between 100 and 150 million euros in order to start the production of 5 different models of electric vans of the Zeroid brand in the Free Zone from next year . Yesterday, the CEO of the company, Joan Orús, announced the intention to manufacture, within 5 years, 100,000 electric vehicles per year, combining 60,000 units of the Zeroid brand with another 40,000 of the planned recovery of the old Ebro truck brand .
For this project to see the light, QEV hopes to obtain funds from the Perte VEC of the European Union, whose deadline for presenting projects opens tomorrow. The firm explains that, if it were able to implement its idea, it would give work to the 1,600 Nissan employees who lost their jobs with the closure of the company and who could not take advantage of any early retirement plan. To these workers would be added some 6,000 indirect jobs plus those that the motorcycle firm Silence promised to absorb, which will also produce its vehicles in a part of the Nissan plant.
QEV intends to hire between 100 and 200 workers in the month of June so that, at the beginning of next year and in view of the production of the vehicles, it will carry out a large incorporation of workers. QEV will prioritize former Nissan workers to take advantage of their experience in building vehicles of this type since, it must not be forgotten, that one of the vehicles produced in the Nissan factory was the e-NV200 electric van.
Zeroid has developed three electric vans of different sizes, of which the small one has a capacity of 700 kg and 200 km of autonomy through a 40 kWh battery and could cost around 20,000 euros. The brand also wants to launch a medium-sized van with a load capacity of 1,400 kg with an 80 kWh battery and one of up to 2,700 kilos with 120 or 140 kWh batteries. Using the same platform as the latter, Zeroid intends to build electric and hydrogen buses up to 12 meters long for export.
QEV is also negotiating to increase its capital by 200 million euros over the next three years with the entry of new partners. This company is part of the so-called Decarbonization Hub together with B-Tech (Ebro), Volta Trucks and Ronn Motor, companies that also intend to take advantage of public aid to start their respective electric commercial vehicle production businesses. This Hub has not ruled out the possibility of opening a battery plant near the factory to supply the different manufacturers, although at first, the batteries used in the first Zeroid vans will be of Asian origin.
