Electric mobility hub to take over Nissan plants in Barcelona

The Nissan plants in the Catalan capital's Zona Franca industrial area are set to turn into an electric mobility hub as Australian logistics company Goodman, the winner of a tender to reindustrialize the site, has partnered with the D-hub decarbonization project. 

The Zona Franca consortium announced on Wednesday morning that Goodman, which manages a number of spaces in Europe, the United States, and the Asia-Pacific region, had formally been granted permission to use the site. It will be used to make industrial electric vehicles for the Zeroid brand as well as Ebro brand electric cars. 

Goodman acts as the logistics partner of D-hub, a group made up of around a dozen companies led by QEV and Btech, and was the only company to submit a bid to the tender. 

The hub already received a €107.8 million grant from the Spanish government last November as part of the administration's plans to boost the production of electric vehicles. 

Reemploy Nissan workers

The Zona Franca Business Consortium (CZFB), Catalan government, and Spanish industry, trade, and tourism ministry issued a joint statement saying they "were pleased to be able to start up the activity on the entire site, which will allow Nissan’s workforce, which is currently using up its unemployment benefits, to be reemployed, as well as generating new jobs."

Japanese carmaker Nissan went public with plans to close its factories in May 2020, at the height of the pandemic, leading to months of strikes and protests before its last vehicle was made there in late 2021. 

Around 1,300 former Nissan employees are still waiting to be relocated. All in all, some 2,500 people lost their jobs in the closure. 

Reindustrialization committee

A reindustrialization committee was created after the company's announcement to shut down with members of the Spanish and Catalan governments, unions, and Nissan to find a substitute. 

In the same statement, the CZFB and Spanish and Catalan authorities speak of their "utmost willingness to resolve the problem created by Nissan’s decision to abandon its production activity" in Barcelona as well as in nearby Montcada i Reixac and Sant Andreu.

China's Great Wall Motors was initially a candidate, but an agreement with the carmaker fell through, thus making D-hub the preferred option. Another electric vehicle maker, Silence, has already taken over 61,078 sqm of the plant and hired some former Nissan workers. 

The reindustrialization committee is set to ratify the transfer agreement between Nissan and D-hub on February 28.