Spanish Companies Plan Homegrown Electric Vehicle

MADRID – A manufacturer specializing in vending machines and a replica-vehicle fabricator founded as an auto-repair workshop are teaming up to create a Spain-built all-electric luxury car.

Velantur Cars, a 50-50 joint venture between Jofemar and Retrofactory founded earlier this month, plans to produce the mostly handcrafted Art-Tech EV starting early next year in a former car-assembly plant in Linares, 180 miles (300 km) south of Madrid in south central Spain.

The JV has released a concept drawing of a 2-seat coupe prototype but has not offered many other details, including production volumes and price. Most of the information about the project has come from Linares Mayor Juan Fernandez, who says Velantur Cars initially will employ 15-25 workers and eventually as many as 300.

The EV’s powertrain will be supplied by the electromobility division of Jofemar, a provider of energy-storage solutions as well as a global leader in vending-machine manufacturing. The company likely will assemble the powertrain from components now on the market.

Retrofactory, which has designed the body of the first prototype, was founded in 1967 by Juan Hurtado, who in 1992 launched the Hurtan Albaycin T2, a 2-seat convertible strongly resembling the Jaguar XJ120, a 2-seat roadster produced by the U.K. automaker from 1948 to 1954.

Control of the factory where the Art-Tech is to be built is in question. The Santana Motor plant assembled 88 Series and 109 Series Land Rover models from 1958 to 1983 under a licensing agreement with then-owner British Leyland. Santana later produced vehicles for Suzuki from 1986 to 2009, and the Japanese automaker in 1995 sold the plant to the government of Andalusia, an autonomous region encompassing Southern Spain.

Fernandez has demanded that control of the Santana plant be transferred to Linares. There is speculation the factory in turn would be handed over to Velantur Cars in exchange for the jobs it would create; the unemployment rate in Andalusia is about 30%.

Some in the local automotive press already have dubbed the Art-Tech the Spanish Tesla, after the U.S.-made EV. Tesla sold six copies of its Model S roadster in Spain in the year’s first four months, according to WardsAuto data.