The Alfa Romeo 147 was the last great commercial success for the Lombard brand, with a total of 651,823 units manufactured and sold at the Pomigliano d’Arco plant (on the outskirts of Naples) between 2000 and 2010. Its distinctive, youthful, and bold aesthetic, and a dynamic performance superior to its rivals of the time, made the 147 the last car of the brand to win the award for best European Car of the Year in 2001.

Catalonia is becoming the spearhead of electromobility in Spain. In the Principality, a higher proportion of plug-in cars are registered than in Spain as a whole. In addition, there are two manufacturers that have focused on making plug-in hybrid and electric cars. And it is, by far, the community with the most public access charging points for electric cars.

The entry into force of the Auto+ program and the announcement of a 15% reduction in personal income tax (IRPF) in the 2026 tax year for the purchase of an electrified vehicle are the two pillars of the strategy for the decarbonization of the Spanish automotive fleet. In fact, the Auto+ plan is the successor to the Moves plan and has an initial allocation of 400 million euros. Buyers of an electrified vehicle can benefit from it, with retroactive effect from January 1, 2026, and the aid is aimed at individuals, the self-employed, SMEs, and micro-enterprises. These grants for the purchase of electric vehicles work through a system of percentages classified by the EEE (electric, European, and economic) system. In short, this means that the most important grants can only be awarded to vehicles that meet the requirement of being electric, having an affordable car price (less than 35,000 euros), and being produced in Europe. These economical, European, and electric vehicles will be able to opt for the maximum amount of money possible, up to 4,500 euros and 5,000 euros if they are vans. In the case of self-employed individuals, this aid can reach 6,000 euros, and if they are vans, up to 7,500 euros. 

One in four cars registered in Catalonia during 2026 is electrified, according to data from manufacturers and dealership associations. Despite this, non-plug-in hybrids are dominating new car sales. Although they have an electric motor in addition to an internal combustion engine, they are not considered electrified because they are not powered by the electrical grid.

Although it was already a publicly known secret since last April, it has not been until last week that it was a publicly known secret since last April that Geely and Ford have signed a historic agreement that will allow the Chinese brand to manufacture several models at the Valencian plant in Almussafes, the factory most highly valued by the Chinese giant's top management thanks to its location, the ease of communication with the rest of Europe, and the proximity of battery manufacturing centers and other suppliers. The agreement between the two automotive giants will allow the Almussafes facilities to go from producing a single model, the Ford Kuga, to five. This is because the roadmap shared by the two companies foresees adding three new models by the end of 2028 and another already planned by the oval brand, the all-terrain Ford Bronco, which will land on the European market during 2027.Two important models in China

The first car that Geely will manufacture in Europe will be the new Geely E5, a compact SUV that is marketed in a fully electric format with a 218 HP engine and a range of 628 kilometers in urban environments (around 450 kilometers in mixed driving cycles). The Geely E5 has a fast-charging system that allows it to charge the batteries from 30% to 80% in just twenty minutes.The second Geely model to land in the Valencian Community – and which has all the makings of a sales success in Europe – will be the Geely E2, also known as the Galaxy Xingyuan in China, an electric B-segment SUV, equivalent to the European utility vehicles it will have to compete with (Renault 5, Cupra Raval and Volkswagen ID Polo). 

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The inflationary spiral of diesel and gasoline prices due to political instability in the Middle East has led to significant growth in electric car sales in recent months in Europe. Products like the Raval Plus only confirm this trend, as manufacturers offer mature, serious, technological, and very practical models, with correct power and considerable ranges, at increasingly attractive prices, such as the €29,530 that Cupra is asking for the new Raval Plus, which becomes less than €25,000 if the Auto+ plan aid is added, and which could be significantly lower depending on the brand's commercial promotions.The new Cupra Raval Plus uses a 135 HP electric motor powered by an LFP battery with a capacity of 38.5 kWh, which allows it to achieve an approved range of 328 kilometers, more than enough for a youthful model with an urban focus. Furthermore, this Raval Plus can be charged at a direct current point of up to 88 kW of power, allowing the battery to be recharged from 10% to 80% in just 23 minutes.

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The automotive sector is undergoing a major transformation in Europe, and its effects are shaking the continent's major companies. Faced with this scenario, the giant Volkswagen has begun to draw up a restructuring plan that foresees cutting up to 100,000 jobs worldwide and also includes the closure of four plants located in Germany, as reported last week by the German media "Manager Magazin". This situation has set off alarms in Martorell: the Seat plant – a subsidiary of the German multinational – could be affected and, as company sources explain to the ARA, there is a feeling among the workforce that this will be the case, whether directly or indirectly.

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The Smart brand was born in 1994, as an urban, elegant and chic subsidiary of the Daimler group, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz. At that time, the idea of manufacturing an urban vehicle with the Mercedes star seemed little less than a pipe dream, and the subsidiary's objective was to compete with a distinctive and aspirational product in the urban vehicle segment. In 1998, Smart began its commercial expansion with a convertible model called the Smart Roadster and the small four-door urban car Smart Forfour, although without achieving the commercial objectives set by Daimler. In fact, the group lost a lot of money with the commercial launch of Smart, to the point of gradually numbing the brand until 2019, when Daimler announced an agreement with the Chinese manufacturer Geely to establish a joint venture and a co-ownership system of Smart between the two industrial groups. Geely paid around 850 million euros for 50% of Smart's shares, in addition to the possibility of establishing production centers in China and turning the brand into an electric vehicle manufacturer, taking advantage of Geely's platform and mechanics.Since then, Smart has begun to market fully electric models such as the Smart #1 and Smart #3, and plug-in hybrids or PHEVs Smart #5 and Smart #6, which are launching on the market this year. An urban revolution

Smart has presented the prototype of the new Smart #2, a model that – this time yes – must be decisive in the brand's future and must serve to increase electric car sales also in Europe. In fact, you don't need to be a genius to see that the new #2 is the spiritual heir of the Fortwo, a small city car that sold more than two million units worldwide between 2007 and 2019, just before the purchase of half of the brand by the Chinese automotive giant Geely.

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With the price of gasoline and diesel through the roof and an energy dependency crisis increasingly evident in Europe, electric cars have already become an increasingly realistic alternative when buying a new car. Modern zero-emission electric cars feature ever shorter charging times, and at this point, they far surpass combustion vehicles in any comparative analysis that includes short, urban trips.

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The battle for the electric car between Europe and China has seen another chapter with the new Xpeng P7+, a luxury electric sedan manufactured (or rather assembled) at the brand's plant in Graz, Austria, which is 5.07 meters long and costs 45,990 euros, not including promotional discounts and institutional aid.In return, Xpeng offers a vehicle with rear-wheel drive versions and power outputs of 245 or 313 HP, and ranges of 450 and 530 kilometers respectively, and an all-wheel drive version with two motors that offers 503 HP and a range exceeding 500 kilometers. Up to this point, this Xpeng P7+ does not offer any particularly relevant element that serves as a differentiating factor from its competitors BMW i5, Volvo ES90, or Lexus ES, among others.The differentiating element of this Chinese electric sedan is its ultra-fast charging capacity of up to 446 kW for the higher-end versions, which allows the vehicle to be charged from 10% to 80% in just 12 minutes, a possibility that brings it very close to any combustion model. However, it will be complicated to find a charging point that offers such high charging powers and, therefore, this technical possibility seems impractical in the current ecosystem of fast charging points.

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The Chinese group SAIC has chosen the Galician city of Ferrol to establish its first electric vehicle plant in Europe. Thus, the automotive company will land in Galicia with a factory of its MG brand for which an investment of up to 200 million euros is planned. As explained this Monday by the president of the Xunta, Alfonso Rueda, the factory will have facilities in the outer port of Ferrol and in the municipality of As Pontes. The plant is expected to be capable of producing 120,000 vehicles per year.

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Beauty is a subjective concept, especially in the field of automotive design. In fact, there are models that many people consider rather ugly (or not very attractive) like the Fiat Multipla, while others consider it a fantastic and ahead-of-its-time work. But Ferrari is not just a car manufacturer, its models are not just cars, and the reality is that the first electric car in Ferrari's history will go down in posterity as one of the few mistakes of the Maranello brand.Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, historic president of the brand, has not hesitated to describe the Luce as an “historic mistake capable of damaging the Ferrari myth”, while wishing that Ferrari “immediately withdraw the logo of the Cavallino Rampante from this electric car”. Montezemolo's opinion, shared by millions of brand followers worldwide, goes beyond an occasional whim against electric cars. The underlying problem lies in the concept and identity of the brand, as the Luce is not a sports coupe, but a kind of crossover halfway between a grand tourer and a four-door all-terrain vehicle with five seats and a 600-liter trunk capacity. An excellent technical sheet for a family-oriented, zero-emission grand tourer for Maserati, Aston Martin, or Porsche, among others, but not for a car that bears the Ferrari emblem on its front.An electric Ferrari: was it really necessary?

When a teacher asks a student to draw a car, the child often draws a sporty-looking red vehicle. In fact, Ferrari is the first car brand that many boys and girls learn about at school. Ferraris have historically been sports cars with V8 or V12 engines (i.e., 8 or 12 cylinders in a V) with high power and a characteristic sound, designed by Italian styling centers such as Pininfarina, Giugiaro, Bertone, or the Ferrari Design Center itself, among others.

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Inspired by the great success of the Fiat 500, the Mini, and the more recent Renault 5, and in an increasingly worrying context of declining sales and market share, the French brand Citroën has confirmed the return of the iconic 2CV. The model will once again hit the road in an electric, urban, and affordable format, with the official confirmation that entry-level versions will have a base price of around 15,000 euros.The 2CV is a legendary model, which arrived on the market in 1949 and represented the democratization of the automobile in France just after the Second World War. The original 2CV was in production until 1990, and Citroën manufactured more than 5 million units, both in compact or hatchback format and in its estate car or van version. The model's success was due to its simplicity, reliability, and extraordinary comfort, thanks to its suspension system. The model's legend includes the anecdote that stated that one of the model's quality controls consisted of overcoming an off-road section through a ploughed field with a basket of eggs in the cabin, without any of them arriving broken at their destination.The CEO of the French brand, Xavier Chardon, has announced that the model will maintain the essence of the original based on four adjectives that will define and characterize it: “accessible, electric, simple and versatile”, to which he added the note “highly desirable”. For the moment, the brand has only published an image of the model in shadow, which gives an idea of the general lines of the new 2CV, but in no case has it confirmed power, autonomy or technological equipment.What we can deduce, however, is that the new 2CV will use Stellantis Group's modular platform for affordable electric urban cars, which it will share with the Citroën e-C3 and other Opel and Fiat models. In fact, internal information suggests that the new 2CV will be manufactured from 2028 at the Italian plant in Pomigliano d’Arco, on the outskirts of Naples, where it will share the platform, modular elements, and engines with the future Fiat Panda electric, which will target a different customer profile than the new 2CV. Citroën plans to unveil the final production model and explain the technical capabilities of the new 2CV during the Paris Motor Show, which will be held next October in the French capital.Nostalgia comes

In recent years, several European car manufacturers have joined the retro or vintage trend, especially in France, with stunning success of the Renault 5 and the Renault 4 and Renault Twingo, also in electric, urban, and affordable format. Unlike Renault's models, the Stellantis group wants to bet on affordable and simple cars, which awaken the nostalgic emotional side in new electrified models.

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As Pedro Sánchez announced at the end of last year, the Spanish government has set the goal that, by 2035, no more combustion vehicles will be sold. To achieve this, the head of the executive presented the Auto Spain 2030 Plan, also called the Auto+ plan, which, through 25 measures comprised in five pillars, aims to boost innovation in the automotive industry in Spanish territory. This Thursday, at an event held at Casa Seat in Barcelona, the sector presented the opportunities that the plan can create in Catalonia. "We have a historic opportunity to lead the new era of mobility," assured the CEO of Seat and Cupra, Markus Haupt.

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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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The company Ebro EV Motors, owner of the Ebro brand, lost 16.33 million euros last year –the first full fiscal year manufacturing cars in the Zona Franca–, 31.5% less than in 2024, but its revenues soared to 357 million (+920%), driven by sales of its models, as the company, listed on the BME Growth (the Spanish stock market for SMEs), reported this Tuesday. Revenues multiplied by ten compared to 2024 and those associated with the automotive business amounted to 335 million euros.

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The Catalan automotive brand Ebro announced this Monday that from the end of this year it plans to start producing its first 100% electric urban vehicle at the Zona Franca plant in Barcelona – the former Nissan – which it aims to market from next winter. The vehicle, which is still a prototype, will be unveiled soon, but the company has detailed that it will be 4.2 meters long and have a range of 400 kilometers.

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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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