In 1998, the then CEO of the Volkswagen group, the German Ferdinand Piëch, decided to buy the Bugatti brand to integrate it into the Volkswagen group under the umbrella of the Porsche subsidiary. Piëch's idea was to buy the brand to manufacture the fastest and most powerful car ever made and he set about the project of the Bugatti Veyron, the first combustion car to exceed 1,001 hp of power and with a top speed of over 400 km/h. In 2016, Bugatti went a step further with the Chiron, an even more beastly and exclusive model, of which it has made exclusive limited series sold at seven-figure prices. However, the Bugatti brand has been far from profitable for several years, despite selling editions of its models that became the most expensive production car in history at the time, as in the case of the Chiron La Voiture Noire, a special unit sold for a final price of over eleven million euros. Despite selling cars at astronomical prices, Bugatti's development, design, production, and marketing costs were higher than the income obtained, and the brand's existence within the Volkswagen group was only explained by a matter of prestige.Since 2021 and for the last five years, the Volkswagen Group has managed Bugatti through its high-performance subsidiary Porsche and an industrial agreement with the Croatian brand Rimac. Rimac is an electric car manufacturer that controls 55% of Bugatti, while Porsche controlled the remaining 45%. However, in turn, the Volkswagen Group controlled 20% of Rimac's shareholding, thus guaranteeing its decision-making power over Bugatti and leveraging the know-how and electric technologies of the Rimac brand, specialized in high-power electric sports cars.An advertised sale

This week Porsche has confirmed the sale of its 45% stake in Bugatti and 20% in Rimac to the North American investment fund HOF Capital, based in New York, for an undisclosed amount. This is due to Porsche's complicated financial situation (a few days ago it announced that it would have to lay off 500 more employees in Germany to balance its accounts), which has led to the sale of its stake in Bugatti when the first serious offer appeared on the brand's management's table.Porsche's electrification strategy has been a mixed success for the German brand, as it has invested heavily in its electric models, such as the Taycan or the new Macan. However, the brand's customers have not yet decided to make the leap to electrification, which has led to a repositioning of the brand's roadmap, which has just announced that it will develop a Macan with a gasoline engine, in a clear move aimed at regaining presence and sales volume in its segment.

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Taking a car for its ITV (vehicle inspection) is a routine that practically all vehicle owners must undergo sooner or later during the lifespan of their car or motorcycle. At ITVs, different aspects are evaluated to assess the real condition of a vehicle, in accordance with parameters set by European regulations, and the sticker that guarantees successful completion of this test is homologable across the 27 EU member states.The last major modification to ITV regulations was in 2014, despite the fact that the automotive world has changed considerably in the last twelve years. In this regard, the Council of the European Union is working this week to approve a package of modifications to the technical section that regulates pollutant gas emissions, noise pollution levels, the condition of safety and driving assistance systems (ADAS), and the condition of electric vehicle batteries, among others.Regarding the new system for measuring and detecting pollutant emissions, it is worth noting that the new protocol foresees more sensitive methods for detecting nitrogen oxide (NOx) levels and particles emitted by the exhaust pipe, and will allow for a more accurate assessment of the condition of the particle filter and the pollutant gas elimination systems of modern combustion cars, both diesel and gasoline. The new text also includes an optional remote sensing test that will allow for remote measurement of particle, gas, and sound emissions from the vehicle while it is in operation on public roads. However, this remote sensing possibility is still subject to the verdict of the EU Transport Commission.The rest of the novelties that the Council of the EU text wishes to include affect the revision of ADAS or assistance systems, formed by the set of sensors, radars, and cameras that modern cars have, but also by driving assistance systems such as lane keeping assist, recognition of involuntary lane change alerts, or cruise control, among others. Finally, the new protocol also aims to regulate the method for reviewing the condition of lithium batteries in electric, hybrid, and plug-in hybrid vehicles, to ensure their good condition and the safety of occupants and other road users.A new European visa

The text proposed by the Council of the EU includes for the first time the possibility of carrying out the ITV inspection in a EU country different from the country of origin. In a system where tests are homologated among all states, it makes sense that homologation certificates can be issued in countries other than the vehicle's country of origin, albeit with a temporary duration of six months, before the vehicle must undergo the definitive inspection at a station in its country of origin. The other front that the text proposal, which will be approved this week, seeks to regulate is the manipulation of odometers, through the creation of a database where workshops must record the kilometers traveled in each inspection to minimize the possibilities of fraud.Finally, it is worth noting that the modifications proposed by the Council of the European Union do not affect the periodicity of the inspection schedule, which will maintain the current intervals: four years for the first inspection from the registration of a new car or motorcycle, every two years from the fourth year, and in the case of cars, annually from ten years of the vehicle's age.  

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Catalonia is an increasingly aging country. According to Idescat data, as of 2026, 20% of the Catalan population is over 65 years old, a figure that is surprising when compared to the 14% of the total that represents the school-age population. Catalans are living longer and better, as is also happening in the rest of Spain and Mediterranean countries, such as Greece, Italy, or Croatia, among others. In this regard, Idescat's projections for the year 2070 are devastating: if we continue with the current trend, Catalonia will reach the final stretch of the century with a population of about 9 million people, a third of whom will be over 65 years old.Aging and super-aging (i.e., the rate of people over 80 years old in a society) will modify the uses and services of Catalan society, with a logical increase in social and health services and medication expenses. Living longer and in better physical shape will also raise the average age of drivers on Catalan roads. Currently, there is no age limit to get behind the wheel, as current regulations establish that the physical condition and cognitive abilities of drivers are the determining factors for whether a person is fit to continue driving.Until this 2026, the DGT used to renew driving licenses for 10 years for people turning 65, but with the modification of the regulations that came into effect this year, people born between 1956 and 1961 who renew their driving license will have the validity of licenses AM, A1, A2, A, and B limited to a duration of 5 years, while those who renew professional driving licenses C, C1, D, D1, EC, ED, or ED1 will have their renewal limited to only 3 years of validity. With this reform, the DGT aims to detect timely processes of auditory or visual deterioration, as well as reflexes and cognitive capacity. At this point, it is worth remembering that most medical studies suggest that between 65 and 75 years old, there is an accelerated aging process that can lead to modifications in visual or auditory acuity within a few years, which justifies the regulatory reform promoted by the DGT.As for those over 70 years old, the regulations exempt them from paying renewal fees for their driving license, but they will have to pay the cost of the mandatory medical examination, which must determine if a person is capable of continuing to drive, regardless of their age. It is worth remembering that from the age of 70, the validity of the driving license is only 2 years, to ensure proper monitoring of the physical and cognitive abilities of people who wish to renew their license. 

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Volkswagen has finally presented the ID Polo, the electric evolution of the brand's urban utility vehicle, which will be manufactured on line 1 of the Martorell plant, in parallel with the Cupra Raval. And it is that the Cupra Raval and this ID Polo are, in reality, the same car with different bodies and interiors, as they share a modular platform, engines and the rest of the mechanical systems. Unlike the Raval, however, this new Volkswagen ID Polo will have a base price of 24,900 euros, which places it slightly below the Catalan model.

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One of the most pleasant surprises of the Beijing Auto Show, currently being held in the Chinese capital, has been the presentation of the first electric car from Ebro, which will be manufactured in Barcelona before the end of the year, as confirmed by the brand. Ebro's new urban electric vehicle – which does not yet have an official name – takes the mechanical and technological base of the Chery QQ3, which has been on sale in China for a month.Ebro's first electric car will be a vehicle 4.3 meters long with a 90 kW engine (equivalent to 121 conventional hp) and a 42.7 kWh battery capacity, which should allow for real ranges of between 350 and 400 kilometers. This electric car is designed for urban and family use, as it sacrifices some performance to improve the car's comfort and range. The top speed will be electronically limited to 135 km/h (above legal limits in Spain) and it will have an acceleration from 0 to 100 in more than ten seconds, a discreet figure that shows its more family-oriented and cosmopolitan vocation.The main selling point of Ebro's first electric car will be its charging architecture, which allows it to go from 30% to 80% battery charge in just half an hour, thanks to Chery's V2L system compatible with power up to 6.6 kW. Beyond that, this electric vehicle will maintain the digital and technological interior design already introduced in the S700 and S800, with a large 15.6-inch central touchscreen and various assistance systems, driving aids, and ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance System) safety features, such as speed assistants, blind spot monitoring, and collision warnings with vehicles, bicycles, or pedestrians, among others.Unknowns to solve

The brand assures that this new electric car, the first from the Ebro brand, will be manufactured in Barcelona, taking advantage of some local suppliers and parts that will arrive from China, and that it will reach our streets before the end of the year. What Ebro has not yet provided is the definitive name of the car, nor the indicative price range where it wants to place its product.The new electric Ebro should be the brand's alternative to Renault 5 and the new Renault 4, and will be positioned below in price and performance compared to the Volkswagen ID Polo and Cupra Raval that will be manufactured in Martorell. In fact, its biggest rival will be the Chinese BYD Dolphin Surf, with a selling price range between 18,000 and 25,000 euros –promotional discounts and institutional aid aside–, far from the little more than 8,000 that the Chinese model it is derived from costs in the local market.

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One of the advantages of electric vehicles compared to combustion vehicles on paper is their technical simplicity. Electric cars have fewer mechanical components than cars powered by diesel or gasoline engines, and their maintenance is more affordable. This is because current combustion engines, despite being refined, well-designed, and built vehicles, have more elements susceptible to wear, breakage, or failure.ADAC is Germany's leading roadside assistance provider, and for some years now it has been collecting analysis of the vehicles it has had to assist on the road in a study. This week the results for 2024 have been made public, in which the organization had to perform more than 3.6 million operations, 98.8% of which corresponded to vehicles with combustion engines. This figure is not very relevant if we consider that most of the vehicles circulating on German roads (or the rest of Europe) have combustion engines, but ADAC's analysis focuses on cars between two and nine years old and of which at least 7,000 units have been sold in the country.The results obtained by roadside assistance operators in Germany show that electric vehicles four years old register a breakdown frequency of 8.5 vehicles per 1,000 units sold in Germany, while four-year-old cars with diesel or gasoline engines raise this figure to 12.9 vehicles attended per 1,000 units sold on average. If the breakdown frequency is limited to the range of vehicles between 2 and 4 years old, breakdowns of electric vehicles stand at 3.8 cars per 1,000 units, while the ratio for combustion engine vehicles rises to 9.4 cars, practically triple that of zero-emission vehicles.The main cause of roadside assistance, however, has a common denominator among all the cars in the study, regardless of whether they are electric or not. This is because the majority of registered incidents are related to the car's auxiliary battery, which is responsible for starting the vehicle and has a real lifespan of around five years.Tesla and Volkswagen, the most reliable

The study includes the frequency of breakdowns of the main electric cars sold in Germany in recent years, with devastating results. The Tesla Model Y and Model 3 only registered an incidence of 0.9 and 0.5 vehicles broken down per 1,000 units registered, while the Volkswagen ID4 slightly raises its ratio to 1.0 vehicles broken down per 1,000 units sold. The Audi Q4 e-tron, for its part, achieved a result of 0.7 vehicles broken down per 1,000 units registered. The electric car that comes out worst from the study is the Ioniq 5, which registered an average of 22.4 breakdowns per 1,000 units in operation in the Germanic country.

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The Geely E2 (also called EX2 in Latin American markets) is an affordable 4-meter-long electric car with about 395 kilometers of range and power outputs of up to 116 hp that last year became the best-selling car in China. Aware of the potential of its urban electric vehicle, the Chinese automotive giant Geely made the leap to Europe some months ago, but the fact of having to pay tariffs and transport and distribution costs means that its cars are not so competitive on the Old Continent.

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For quite a few years now, Nissan has been dragging financial losses and seeing various industrial and commercial indicators of the brand go down in a crisis that seems to have no bottom. In fact, the Japanese brand is the weak link in the alliance with Renault, which had already offered Honda the possibility of taking over Nissan if it took charge of the brand's debts through the mediation of the Japanese government, an agreement that Honda (focused on its own problems) ultimately did not want to sign.

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The Seat Martorell plant today closes a fifteen-year relationship with Audi with the end of the production of the Audi A1. In fact, relations between the two brands of the Volkswagen group in Baix Llobregat are older, as they started in 2009, with the start of production of the Seat Exeo, an aspirational saloon with a three-box body and estate or station wagon that was actually an Audi A4 from the previous generation, called with the internal nomenclature B7. The very good work of those in Martorell with the Exeo led the Volkswagen Group's management to trust Martorell to manufacture the Audi Q3 SUV there between 2011 and 2018, before a new strategic repositioning saw the VAG Group's top brass assign the manufacture of the Audi A1 there, a model that has been current between 2018 and this 2026.

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In 2012, an then unknown Elon Musk challenged the automotive giants with the presentation of the Model S, a sporty electric sedan that aimed to become a breath of fresh air in a world where diesel and gasoline cars seemed to be the undisputed kings of the market. More than one must have taken it as a joke. Fourteen years later, the automotive world has changed a lot, and an important part of the shift has been, it must be acknowledged, the deafening success of the Model S and its twin brother in SUV format, the Tesla Model X.The case of the Model S and Model X are a true rara avis in a changing world, as the same platform or automotive base has been in use for fourteen long years in a unique and worthy-of-study case. And it is that during all these years Tesla has grown and gained fame and popularity on all five continents in a dazzling way, forcing conventional manufacturers to follow in its footsteps to avoid being left out of the game. However, recent years have been more full of shadows due to political adventures and Elon Musk's controversial statements, which have significantly lowered the brand's transgressive, ecological, and innovative image.The Model S and Model X have been manufactured at the Fremont plant (on the outskirts of San Jose, in the state of California) for the last fourteen years. This is a factory that began producing the Model S in 2012 with only about 1,000 employees on staff and has grown with new production lines and models to reach 22,000 employees today and far exceed half a million units manufactured each year. The recipe for keeping the two cars fresh and relevant on a commercial scale without suffering excessive wear in global sales has been to fill them with technological innovations, such as remote updates, the use of Grok (the proprietary AI system of Tesla and Elon Musk's other companies), and the Plaid versions with over 1,000 conventional HP.

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The number of deaths from being run over on Spanish roads during Easter has been the highest in the last ten years, despite the entry into force of the mandatory V-16 luminous signaling system. In fact, the obligation to acquire this luminous warning system for emergencies or breakdowns connected to the DGT, which shows the location of cars with incidents in real time, was based on a supposed improvement in safety for vehicle occupants in these situations, but the first major travel campaign of the year, coinciding with the Easter holidays, has demonstrated the ineffectiveness of this system in combating being run over and associated mortality.From AUGC (Unified Association of the Civil Guard), the majority association of agents of la Benemérita, they point directly to the ineffectiveness of these devices and state that "false expectations" had been created around the implementation of the luminous and geolocated V-16 signal. Carlos Cantero, head of the traffic area of this association of civil guards, assures that the death data reveal that this system has proven to be "ineffective" in reducing the mortality figures due to being run over. It is still relevant that this luminous warning system was patented by two former Civil Guard officers and that a business of more than 1,200 million euros was generated. For this reason, Facua denounced the DGT for promoting a massive fraud with the obligation of this device. To conclude, the head of traffic of the AUGC denounces that the DGT “has not listened to the opinion of the agents who are on the street” and that “prevention must be improved” to reduce the unacceptable increase in mortality associated with the new V-16 device.

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Honda is suffering the worst crisis in its history, after the automotive division registered losses exceeding 4.2 billion euros during the Japanese fiscal year, which ends on March 31st each year. This is the first time in the Japanese brand's 70-year history that a fiscal year has closed with financial losses, causing a real earthquake that has shaken the foundations of the Nipponese brand. In fact, one of the first measures taken by the company's management has been to rethink the brand's industrial roadmap, oriented towards a total electrification of its range.The poor results of a historically profitable and sound brand like Honda's automotive division (which includes the high-performance subsidiary Acura) are mainly due to the involution of the North American market because of the trade tariffs imposed by the Trump administration and the transition process towards electric cars, which is not progressing at the pace foreseen by the brand.Let's take it step by step, though. To grasp the magnitude of the tragedy, one must first understand that Honda is a brand with a large commercial presence in the United States, a country where it also has several production plants such as those in the state of Ohio, where the Honda CR-V is manufactured, or the factories in Lincoln and Greenwood, in the states of Indiana and Alabama respectively, where Honda Civics and various Acura models for the North American market are produced. However, since 2010 Honda has also opened new plants in Mexico and Canada, taking advantage of the free trade agreements between the countries of North America, where the HR-V, the brand's best-selling car worldwide, is manufactured. The new trade tariffs approved by the Trump administration have made models manufactured in Canada or Mexico no longer competitive in the North American market, with a consequent drop in sales. As Honda manufactures some of its best-selling models in Mexico or Canada, its product has become exponentially more expensive due to trade tariffs, causing the price of cars to become uncompetitive in the United States market. To try to compensate for the increase in the final price of its product, Honda has had to cut the commercial margin for each unit sold of the Honda and Acura divisions, and if to this factor we add that sales have not grown in volume, the reason for the brand's crisis is perfectly understood. And it is that during the year 2025 Honda sold a total of 3,312,000 cars, 10% less than the previous year. Fewer cars sold, and with a smaller margin: the key to the brand's financial storms.A rather uninspiring electricity demand

The second factor that has contributed to Honda's poor economic result has been the low demand for electric vehicles worldwide and the sizing and investments that the brand had made since the launch of the Honda e, a magnificent electric car that we were able to test six years ago and that was supposed to be the spearhead of the Japanese brand's electric strategy. In reality, however, the Honda e and the rest of the brand's electric models have turned out to be a great commercial failure for the Japanese brand.

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It has been six years since Seat presented its latest model, the fourth generation of the Seat Leon, probably the best car manufactured by Seat. Since then, however, those from Baix Llobregat have focused all their commercial efforts on the Cupra brand, which over the last few years has presented several new models (Born, Raval, Terramar, Tavascan, and Formentor). This policy of differentiating the Cupra brand from Seat has reached the point where even the Cupra Leon has received specific aesthetic updates to distinguish it ostentatiously from the model bearing the Seat logo.The current Seat range is based on the best-sellers Arona and Ibiza, the already veteran Ateca and the León, the only Seat with a plug-in hybrid version and eligible for an ecological sticker. Along the way, the Martorell brand has lost important models such as the Tarraco, has renounced the Seat Mó sustainable mobility division and agreements to manufacture scooters with Silence, and finally, the brand has not opted for mild hybrid or mild hybrid mechanics to improve the consumption and emissions of the Arona, Ateca and Ibiza, the brand's great commercial strongholds.Although Seat's commercial range is starting to age, the green numbers it presents at the end of each commercial year have allowed it to avoid – for the moment – the threat of closing shifts and production lines, as has happened with other brands in the Volkswagen group. Seat, despite everything and against all odds, is profitable and this has been, until now, its lifeline.The dismissal of Wayne Griffiths, a supporter of the Seat brand in Wolfsburg, and the impossibility of opening new lines of financing for new models, raise some questions regarding the brand's continuity. The leadership of the Volkswagen group is decisively committed to Cupra, and in fact, it is Seat's sports brand that has received technological and mechanical improvements from Volkswagen, while Seat does not have (and probably will not have) any electric car in its range. Griffiths' successor at the helm of Seat, Markus Haupt, now has the difficult mission of leading a new direction with goals, achievement indicators, and new horizons for Seat when it is not a priority brand for the Volkswagen group.The group's Cinderella

Seat has historically been a brand condemned to be the Cinderella of the Volkswagen group, far from the centers of power and decision in Wolfsburg and little valued in relation to Skoda, Audi or Volkswagen itself. In fact, Seat has never premiered any mechanics or technology from the group since it became part of the orbit of the Volkswagen group during the 1980s, but the current situation, with a long five-year wait to present new models (and probably some more years will still pass) is absolutely unprecedented.Following the outbreak of the Dieselgate case and the emissions scandal that fully implicated the Volkswagen group, the Germans decided to make a historic change of course, and practically overnight became a manufacturer fully focused on electric cars. In fact, the group has not introduced any mechanical improvements or new gasoline or diesel engines since 2019. It has maintained existing combustion powertrains and has bet on new fully electric models. More than six years later, however, the electric car market is still not fully mature, and Volkswagen has had to adjust the price of its new electric cars considerably to make them competitive against the great Chinese offensive.In this context of stagnation of new combustion engine models and a firm commitment to the electric car, the group's management has shown how Seat is not an industrial or commercial priority, and has relegated it to the only brand in the group without a fully electric car. The Volkswagen group's strategy has been to offer electric models with other features (and high prices) at Porsche or Audi, to position Skoda and Volkswagen as more or less accessible intermediate options for the general public, and to entrust Cupra with the role of an aspirational and sporty brand, which leaves Seat outside the brand's electrification roadmap.Seat is now facing one of the key moments in its history: it is seeking its own identity within the Volkswagen group and investments in research and development of new models that must serve to guarantee the brand's continuity. The Volkswagen group is very hesitant to comment on a possible expiry date for the brand and its total conversion into Cupra, but it has also not presented any future plan that includes new models (electric or not) for Seat. With an eye on the entry into force of emission limits for car manufacturers in 2027, it is difficult to imagine that Seat will be able to reverse the current situation and develop a new product range capable of homologating the new emission limits set by the European Union.Meanwhile, Seat continues to offer a range of products with reliable and proven combustion engines, practically perfect from a technical point of view, but which cannot compete in terms of consumption and emissions with its more modern rivals. Time is running out for the Martorell brand, which proudly and stoically maintains its market share, with the Ibiza and Arona bearing the brunt of Seat's sales and keeping the company's numbers in the black at the end of each fiscal year.

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After having incurred millionaire losses due to the fiasco of the PureTech gasoline engines in recent months, the Stellantis group faces a new industrial crisis that will involve the recall of more than 40,000 vehicles in Spain manufactured between 2023 and 2026 due to a fire risk alert for the new PureTech engines. This new warning, generated by the European Union's alert system (Safety Gate), affects about fifteen Stellantis group models that use the 1.2 PureTech gasoline engine associated with a semi-hybrid, light hybrid, or Mild Hybrid system.The problem that generates the risk of fire in models with this engine is the small space between the particle filter and the alternator, which, by generating high temperatures and not cooling down properly, can lead to a fire in the vehicle. The Setllantis group admits this risk, although it points out that so far only about a dozen vehicles have been recorded as having caught fire worldwide and states that it has already begun to contact buyers of the affected cars to carry out a revision.

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Volkswagen and Cupra will recall a total of 94,000 electric cars, manufactured between February 7, 2022, and August 23, 2024, in the case of Volkswagen models, and between February 7, 2022, and April 21, 2024, in the case of Cupra models, due to a problem detected with the battery module of the electric cars Cupra Born and Volkswagen ID.3, ID.4, ID.5, and ID.Buzz.Although no fire cases have been reported, affected units can register incidents in the battery pack, which generate a warning on the dashboard and a significant reduction in the vehicle's autonomy, and in extreme cases can ultimately result in a thermal overload that causes the batteries to catch fire.This incident, detected by the German vehicle approval authority (KBA), can be resolved through a check at an official dealership, where, based on a software update of the vehicle, the actual condition of each battery module can be thoroughly analyzed. In case any module is found to be operating irregularly, it will be replaced with a new one, without the inspection and possible replacement incurring any cost for the customers.Cupra sources have confirmed that this incident may affect around 500 registered Cupra Born units currently in circulation in Spain, and they recommend that customers do not charge the batteries above 80% of their capacity and do so outdoors before the car has been checked by the brand's technical service. However, the first reports indicate that a total of 19,500 units of the Cupra Born manufactured between February 2022 and April 2024 have been sold worldwide. In fact, the first three units that reported this incident were three Cupra Borns manufactured in 2023 and operating in Australia, which in early January of the same year, coinciding with the Australian summer, overheated the battery modules and caused small fires in the car.At this point, it is worth noting that all affected models (the Cupra Born and the Volkswagen ID.3, ID.4, ID.5, and ID.Buzz) have been manufactured at the German plant in Zwickau, where the Audi Q4 e-tron is also produced. However, unlike the rest of the models, Audi's electric car has not been recalled and does not appear to suffer from the same issue as the Volkswagen and Cupra cars.An electric leadership still to consolidate

Although the registered incident is not serious and that the official Volkswagen and Cupra services can resolve it with a software reprogramming and the replacement of faulty modules, it is clear to everyone that this recall catches the Volkswagen group at a delicate moment. And it is that, despite Volkswagen becoming the main manufacturer of electric cars in 2025, the sales figures for these models are still far from the objectives set in 2019, when the new electric strategy of the Lower Saxony group was presented.

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After having established its range in the Spanish state and achieved a foothold in an increasingly complex market, Ebro has this week inaugurated the first five dealerships of the brand in Portugal, in the cities of Porto, Aveiro, Viseu, Leiria, Coïmbra and Lisboa thanks to a collaboration agreement with the Portuguese distributors of the MCoutinho group.Ebro lands in Portugal with the S400 models, S700, S800 and S900, with conventional hybrid or HEV versions, plug-in hybrid or PHEV, and conventional combustion engines, as well as with front-wheel drive or all-wheel drive variants. Throughout 2026, the brand expects to also introduce a fully electric model, also assembled at the Barcelona plant.The arrival in Portugal is a first step in the brand's international growth strategy, which expects to open five more dealerships before the end of the year and reach 20 dealerships throughout the country by 2028. The Portuguese market is Ebro's first international venture, which has also planned to open new dealerships in Croatia, Slovenia, and Bulgaria.The fastest growing brand in Spain

Ebro has been the brand that has grown the most and fastest in Spain over the last sixteen months, thanks to the alliance with distribution groups and dealerships and the industrial, financial, and technological support of Chery, the parent company of the Zona Franca brand. In this regard, Johnson Xu, vice president of Chery, has announced that Ebro will "deepen local production" in Barcelona and in the new R&D center in Cornellà to adjust the brand's product to the tastes and preferences of European buyers and "sustain the brand's growth".

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The announcement of the VAT reduction on fuels from 21% to 10% just over a week ago, decreed by the Spanish government, has not had the expected effects, according to the consumer association Facua. This extraordinary measure, intended to cushion the impact of rising crude oil prices due to the war in Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, has made it possible to reduce the price of fuel (diesel and gasoline) and move it away from two euros per liter, but it has not had the desired real impact on the pockets of final consumers, according to Rubén Sánchez, spokesperson for Facua.The consumer association estimates that one in every four petrol stations took advantage of the entry into force of the decree that reduces the price of VAT on fuels to apply a hidden price increase, and criticizes the refusal of Pedro Sánchez's executive to set price caps on fuel or limit the final commercial margin of petrol stations on the final price.  

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Volvo Cars is one of Europe's biggest aspirational manufacturers, and perhaps the only one capable of consistently and systematically challenging the German triumvirate of Audi, BMW and Mercedes, which has dominated the Old Continent with an iron fist for years.

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The BMW 3 Series has historically been the backbone of the Munich-based brand. However, the passage of time and electrification have led BMW to take the step of establishing a parallel commercial offering to its flagship vehicle in a 100% electric version, called the i3.

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The battle for electric cars in Europe has long since become a duel between aspirational or luxury brands and SUVs or crossovers with enough space to transport the whole family. Volvo has now unveiled its eighth electric car, the EX60, a vehicle designed to compete in the aspirational compact SUV segment against the new BMW iX3 and the Mercedes GLC EQamong others.

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