Barcelona, Spain (Ports Europe) February 16, 2024 – The Port of Barcelona imported 790,000 vehicle units in 2023, an increase of +33.7% on the previous 12 months. A growing number of imports are electric Chinese cars.
This increase includes exports, transits, cabotage and, above all, imports, which have broken the record with 246,000 units and an increase of 54%, exceeding by 16% the previous record reached in 2017 (238,723 units).
The port has become the main entry hub for electric vehicles manufactured in China for southern Europe and the Mediterranean. Of the total number of vehicles, 34% were electric and of these, 92% came from China. Exports, for their part, grew by 26%.
On December 16, 2021, the last Nissan car produced in Barcelona left the Free Trade Zone factory after years of production and leaving more than 2,200 people out of work.
There is still hope that a Chinese electric car manufacturer could take over the old Nissan facility to manufacture electric cars, but this has yet to be realised. Car producers BTech and Chery are currently in talks to start work.
