The Chinese company Tianjin Dongxing Grupo Industrial y Comercial, in association with the Cuban company Minerva, promotes the joint project Vehiculos Eléctricos del Caribe, VEDCA, an entity that has quickly won the national market.
VEDCA installed an assembly plant in an area of about 9,000 square meters located about 15 kilometers west of downtown Havana. Around 60 workers give life to the first joint venture of this type between China and Cuba, according to reportage from the Xinhua news agency.
Very soon for sale! It’s already in the factory #VEDCA #Cuba the Electric Car brand #VEDCA pic.twitter.com/qerqGqvjkJ
— Electric Vehicles of the Caribbean (@AeiVedca) January 9, 2023
This entity was formed from the Chinese contribution of technology and equipment, which represented 58% of the total investment. The Cuban partner contributed the remaining percentage by offering the facility and remodeling it.
According to the publication, from March 2019 to date, 2,500 motorcycles, 1,500 tricycles and 1,000 children’s cars have been produced at the plant, all vehicles powered by electric batteries and which reported sales of about six million dollars.
“The current situation in Cuba, where cars are old and spare parts difficult to buy, made us think about replacing them with electric vehicles to solve pollution and maintenance problems,” the president of the Chinese company told the outlet. Wei Yunpu.
Wei, whose company has a commercial relationship with Cuba for more than two decades, recalled that at the beginning they manufactured two-wheeled vehicles, and that with the needs of the individual economy they evolved into tricycles, but later the demand of the Cubans allowed them to start developing gradually quadricycles.
“This project first meets the demand of ordinary people for transportation and business needs, and creates jobs in the country with economic effects for the whole society,” said the Chinese businessman quoted by the agency.
“In the first place, this entity provides new jobs, which will directly help a group of families,” the general director of VEDCA, Julio Óscar Pérez, agreed with Wei.
The manager pointed out that another important element is the production of modern electric mobility equipment, an alternative to solve transportation problems, without depending on fossil fuels and without generating pollution.
The information specifies that for this year the association intends to increase production to 10,000 motorcycles and the same number of tricycles, in addition to starting the assembly of 500 quadricycles and beginning to venture into mechanical bicycles, which would increase the estimated sales potential to 35 millions of dollars.
A part of this production will be destined for the Cuban internal market, although the majority is exported to countries in the Caribbean, Central and South America, where there is an appreciable demand for the quality of the vehicles, highlights Xinhua.
To guarantee the quality of the productions, a technical council is held through a weekly videoconference in which Chinese and Cuban specialists intervene to identify and discuss every detail of the progress of the weekly production flow.
To satisfy the plans for 2023, the assembly of a new tricycle assembly line is expected in the coming months while an evaluation of the quadricycles is carried out to make the necessary adaptations demanded by the Cuban and Caribbean market, the publication adds.
The success of VEDCA can be a stimulus for other Chinese companies that wish to take advantage of the facilities offered by the Cuban policy of promoting foreign investment with mutual benefit.
These productions are intended to constitute a palliative to the serious transportation problems that the Island is suffering, in the midst of an economic crisis that has deepened due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the tightening of sanctions imposed by the United States, and the ineffectiveness of the measures adopted by the Cuban government to overcome the situation.
