SAIC Motor Picks Spain's Galicia for Its First European EV Plant

SAIC Motor, the Shanghai-based automaker behind the MG brand, is putting down its first manufacturing roots in Europe. The government of Spain's Galicia region confirmed that the company will build an electric vehicle plant in Ferrol, in the province of A Coruña, with an initial investment of €200 million and a target of more than 2,300 local jobs.

Galicia President Alfonso Rueda laid out the timeline to reporters: construction begins in 2027, and the plant is meant to be operational by the end of 2028. Once running, the facility is projected to turn out 120,000 vehicles a year. The plan also folds in a new industrial zone near the local port to handle assembly logistics and shipping, which suggests SAIC is thinking about Ferrol as more than a single factory.

The problem this solves for SAIC

SAIC has been the best-selling Chinese auto group in Europe, mostly on the strength of MG, but it has been selling cars built in China and shipped across the world. That model ran into a wall in late 2024 when the European Union imposed countervailing duties on Chinese-made EVs. SAIC drew one of the steeper rates, well above 30 percent on top of the standard import tariff, a direct response to the subsidies the EU argued were underwriting Chinese exports.

Building inside the bloc is the obvious answer. Cars assembled in Ferrol are European cars for tariff purposes, which neutralizes the duty problem and shortens the supply line to dealerships across the continent. It is the same logic that pulled Japanese and Korean automakers into European and American plants decades ago, now playing out with Chinese manufacturers as the new entrants.

Why Galicia, and why this matters

Ferrol brings a deepwater port, an existing shipbuilding and heavy-industry workforce, and a regional government eager to court the investment. For Spain, the deal is a piece of a broader bet on becoming a manufacturing base for the EV transition; the country already hosts plants from Stellantis, Volkswagen's SEAT, and a growing battery supply chain.

The figures here are modest by global auto standards. A 120,000-unit plant is mid-sized, and €200 million is described as an initial investment, which usually signals room to scale if the early production lines prove out. That phrasing is worth watching. Chinese automakers have announced European ambitions before and trimmed them when demand or politics shifted, so the move from groundbreaking in 2027 to actual output in 2028 will be the real test.

What is clear is the direction of travel. Chinese carmakers are no longer content to export their way into Europe and absorb the tariff penalty. SAIC's Ferrol plant joins BYD's factory in Hungary and others in a wave of localized production that could reshape who builds cars on European soil over the next decade. For Spain's industrial north, the immediate payoff is jobs and a port project; for SAIC, it is a way to keep selling cars in its most important export market without paying a penalty on every unit at the border.

The announcement, first reported by Jiwei, still leaves open questions about battery sourcing, model lineup, and whether the plant will serve only European demand or feed exports further afield. Those details will say a lot about how committed SAIC is to manufacturing in Europe versus simply parking a foothold there. More on SAIC's plans is available through the company's MG Europe operations, which would be the most likely brand to roll off the Ferrol line.