Ebro

We attended a crash test and discovered the new (and first) Ebro full electric

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Wuhu has turned out to be quite a surprise. While Beijing has those aromas and that life of what, clearly, is a great capital, Wuhu, although it is enormous, is more reminiscent of that “neighborhood China.” The multi-hundred-story buildings that can accommodate hundreds and hundreds of families make an appearance, of course, but the atmosphere is different. There are restaurants, small shops, it feels more local, more authentic. It is here where Chery, the technological partner of the Spanish company Ebro, whom I accompany on this trip, was born and has its headquarters. And it shows. Not because the hotel we stayed in belongs to the company, that too, but on the road. A walk through Wuhu | Image: Xataka If in Beijing you didn’t see a single Chery car, here they are religion. They are everywhere, wherever you look. The taxis? All Chery. Personal vehicles? Absolute omnipresence of the Tiggo and Arizzo ranges. BYD, Geely, Toyota, Kia and Hyundai are also here, but Chery’s dominance is absolute. Caught | Image: Xataka It’s something normal. China has that component of betting on the local. It is a kind of pride, something to boast about, using a product born in your city and the government promotes it. That’s why BAIC reigns in Beijing and that’s why when they ask you about your cell phone or watch model, they smile a little when they see that, in my case, they are an honor and a Huawei. The same thing happens with Chery, but today it’s not time to talk about Chery, but about Ebro. Chery is the partner technology from the Spanish Ebro, which uses its platforms to sell its own models in Spain, Portugal and, soon, Bulgaria, Slovenia and Croatia. A Ebro s700 It is, at its core, a Chery Tiggo 7. Knowing that, it will not surprise anyone that Ebro’s new model is based on the Chery QQ3 EV. Because yes, Ebro has finally announced a completely electric car which will be produced in its factory in the Free Trade Zone of Barcelona. It still does not have a name and the specifications are not final, since the homologation is missing, but I can tell you a little something, since I have been able to see it in first person. The new electric Ebro | Image: Xataka This car has a clearly urban vocation and is focused on the younger audience. More circular and oval shapes, 2.7 meters between axles and 4.3 meters long give shape to a more compact car and very different from what Ebro has put on the road to date. It is a risky bet for 1) a brand that until now was synonymous with SUVs and 2) a market whose electrification still has a way to go. It has a 42.7 kWh lithium-ferrophosphate battery, which translates into a range of more than 300 kilometers. It has a 90 kW rear axle motor, which allows it to offer, always according to the brand, 122 HP, 111 Nm of maximum torque, 135 km/h maximum speed and acceleration from zero to 100 in less than 11 seconds. At the moment, his name is Ebro BEV | Image: Xataka The power of the charging system has not been revealed, but it will be compatible with AC and DC and will be able to go from 30% to 80% in 30 minutes. Inside the car we find two generous screens, a 15.6-inch floating central one with 2K resolution and a system powered by a Snapdragon chip, and another smaller one, 10.25 inches, in the instrument panel. In China, analog needles and lights have passed away. Interior of the Ebro BEV | Image: Xataka The price has not been revealed either. and the specifications, as we said, are provisional. When the process of industrial adaptation and approval is completed, we will clear up doubts. This is not the only novelty, although it is the most notable. Ebro has taken advantage of the presentation in Chery’s hometown to announce a new version of the Ebro s400 with 1.5 TGDI engine and DHT transmission with two electric motors. This has a power of 224 HP and consumes 5.55 L/100 km. An interesting thing is that it can move in tandem mode (so that the combustion engine generates energy so that the electric one moves the wheels) or in parallel (both engines working at the same time). In theory, this should help reduce the car’s engine noise and improve the lack of “oomph” seen in the previous model. Restyling of the Ebro S800 PHEV. The s700 and S400 maintain the same front grille design | Image: Xataka Ebro also announced a restyling from the s700 and s800with a new front grille with rectangular shapes inspired, according to the firm, in Barcelona, ​​and aesthetic adjustments designed to homogenize the design and give it a more rounded touch. This has been one of the parts of the day, but today I have also been able to witness something that, to date, I had never seen: a crash test. I don’t know, there’s something, let’s say, funny, in seeing a car going towards another knowing that both are going to break down. Under controlled conditions, needless to say. It has a certain charm and, frankly, the real shame is that it lasts so little, because it’s barely a second. New car for sale, few kilometers, one owner, always in a garage | Image: Xataka For the test, Chery placed a Tiggo 9 (remember, the base of an Omoda 9 SHS) at one end of the road. To the other, a Tiggo 7 that rushed towards him at 50 km/h. At the same time that the Tiggo 7 crashed head-on, the Tiggo 9 received a complete impact against a barrier vehicle at 40 km/h from behind. They are, from what they have explained to us, two overlapping forces whose purpose is to bring the test closer to a real environment. To the right and in the background, … Read more

a walk through Beijing, Ebro, Chery and the silent streets

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This is the third time in two years that I have visited China. The first time was for visit OnePlus and OPPO headquarters in Guandong. The second, for get into the kitchen at the Honor factory and headquarters in Shenzhen. Now I do it for something totally different and that’s why I would like to do something different. I tell you. On this occasion I accompanied Ebro, yes, the car company of the Chery group, to the Beijing Motor Show and the Chery headquarters in Wuhu. And I do it for a reason: cars, historically, have not been my greatest passion, but now, at almost 32 years of age and with a view to starting a family, I am thinking about changing cars and I know China has a lot to say about this.. In Córdoba, my city, everything always arrives late. I mean, relatively recently they opened the first bowling place. açaito give you an idea. That’s why I know that something is changing, because every time I take my car, a small Seat Ibiza, I see cars from brands on the road that I didn’t see two years ago: Omoda, Jaecoo, Ebro, MG and BYD, mainly. Understanding his success requires understanding the context of his native country. and, to do this, there is nothing better than coming to it and experiencing it first-hand. And that’s why I propose something to you. Ebro S900 PHEV | Image: Ebro I propose that we live this together through a kind of daily blog in which I will tell you what I have seen, what I have learned and what things have caught my attention. Not from the perspective of an engine expert, but from the curious point of view of someone who knows that A new car is part of your next stage in life and you can’t stop seeing how Chinese brands are becoming more and more popular. Together we will visit the Beijing Motor Show, we will tour the streets of the Chinese capital, we will travel to Wuhu and we will see what and how is cooked in the bowels of Chery. That’s why I think the first thing is to put ourselves in context. At the group level, Chery takes bronze in the Chinese market, only behind BYD and Geely. Only in 2025, the firm sold 2,860,393 cars exactly, which is said soon. Chery, in turn, has several brands and subsidiaries such as Chery Automobile (where we find Chery New Energy and Fulwin), Omoda, Jaecoo, Lepas, Zongheng, Luxeed (along with Huawei), Exeed, Jetour, Karry, iCar, Rely, Soueast and the Chery Jaguar Land Rover joint venture. Its most famous products are, without a doubt, the Tiggo and the Arizo. Omoda, Jaecoo, Lepas (arrives in Spain this year) and Exlantix (in China it is Exeed and will arrive in Spain next year) are the brands that the company uses to boost your export strategy. Ebro, for his part, It is a joint venture established in 2024 between Chery and Ebro EV. Roughly speaking, this partnership allows Chery to assemble vehicles at the former Nissan plant in Barcelona and distribute them in Spain and Portugal under the (revived) Ebro brand. It’s a little more complex, but let’s stick with that idea. Tiggo 9 | Image: Xataka Actually, Ebro cars use Omoda platforms | Jaecoo (with some adjustments, for example in the suspension) and these, in turn, are the exported versions of the Tiggo. He Omoda 9 SHS It is, clearly, a Tiggo 9. Why so much branding? Because so they can attack different market segments with specific models and strategieshas no more. It is exactly the same thing that other Chinese groups such as Geely do, which has Geely, a large part of Volvo and Polestar, almost half of Proton Holdings, Zeekr or Lynk&Co, to name just a few. Aito M7, the electric SUV owned by Huawei | Image: Xataka Having said that and having that context, the first thing that has caught my attention in the short time I have been in China is how ubiquitous local brands are. I’ve seen endless BYD, Xpeng, Leapmotor, Nio, BAIC and ArcFox. I have even had the chance to see a couple of Xiaomi SU7s. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t BMW, Volkswagen, Mercedes or Audi, because there are, but it gives me the impression that they have a more luxury component. From the models I have seen, I get the feeling that European cars still have a certain premium aroma here. Toyota, Hyundai and Honda are also relatively common, but the omnipresence of local brands is evident. One of the few Chery that we have seen in Beijing Something that stands out in Beijing, where I am right now, is that you hardly see Chery cars. There are, a priori, three reasons: Chery​ is a great exporteris a Chinese brand whose power is not in China (despite being one of the best-selling brands), but in the international market. It makes sense, since abroad there is much, much, much less competition than in the local market and, above all, in the big capitals. We are in Beijing, a Tier 1 city. There is more capital and users are looking for higher-end/premium products, which explains the greater presence of Tesla, European, electric brands such as Nio or Arcfox and, above all, BAIC (Beijing Automotive Industry Holding). BAIC is a local brand and all taxis are BAIC. Arcfox is BAIC’s premium electric range. The registration system. Buying a car in Beijing is not about going to the dealership and that’s it. To avoid pollution, the government established a points and lottery system to obtain permission to buy a car. Gasoline cars go by lottery and the chances are tiny, 0.1%. New Energy cars (electric, hybrid, plug-in hybrid, etc.) are on a waiting list. It is long, very long, but unlike the lottery, it is safe. If you want a car in Beijing, the easiest thing is to buy an electric one and there … Read more

In 2003 someone released 18 Bavarian beavers into the Ebro basin without saying anything. They have already arrived in Catalonia

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It was a matter of time. In 2005 and while studying the European mink on the banks of the Aragón River, biologist Juan Carlos Ceña realized that something didn’t fit. There were felled trees, remains of forage, footprints, burrows and very specific droppings: it was just what one would expect to find in the vicinity of a beaver community. But there were no beavers in Spain. Everyone knew that. The strange story of the Iberian beavers. For years, researchers have debated whether the last specimens disappeared in the 17th century, the 18th century, or even the 19th century. In the end, the consensus is that the only evidence available They place them in the 2nd century BC. After that moment, no one knows what happened to the peninsula’s beavers. Therefore, what Ceña had just discovered was a bombshell. But, as soon as they started investigating it, they realized that there was a lot of fabric to cut. Sometime in the spring of 2003, someone illegally introduced 18 European beavers from Bavaria. Nobody knows for sure who he was or why he did it. But we know that it continued to be done. Today, there are beavers in the Tagus and the Guadalquivir. And of course we know that your beaver expansion it’s not natural. In 2023, biologist Teresa Calderón calculation that the Tormes beavers would have taken 40 years to get there by their own means from the closest documented population. The Andalusian case is more bloody: there is no way for the beavers to travel on their own the 365 kilometers of southern subplateau between the stretch of the Guadalquivir where they were found in 2023 and the closest point where we had previously found them. The ‘beaver bombing’ was a reality. But the worst was not (only) that: the worst was that, once they reached a river, they were there to stay. As soon as they took root in an area, they did not abandon it: if in 2007 they had already ‘conquered’ 60 kilometers of riverbank, by 2023 the beavers were already in Mequinenza and the lower stretch of the Ebro. It was a matter of time before they arrived in Catalonia and the news is that they have already arrived. The Center for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications has confirmed the presence of the beaver in the Segrià region, in the province of Lleida. Good news. And I’m not talking about the expansion of the beaver. That, today, is neither good nor bad news. It just is. I’m talking about, according to a handful of recent articles, “Beavers can turn river corridors into permanent carbon sinks“That is, they can be a climate ally that helps us recharge aquifers, purify water naturally and help in the recovery of wetlands. It is the ecological version of the old Castilian saying that “when God closes a door, he opens a window.” And thank goodness, because invasive species are here and we will not be able to get rid of them. Image | Derek Otway In Xataka | 20 years ago someone thought it was a good idea to release beavers into the Ebro. Now Zaragoza has a problem that is difficult to solve

The good news is that the Ebro reservoirs are at a historic 85% water level. The bad thing is that we are going to spend it in a short time.

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There are 6,640 hm3 of water in the Ebro basin. The reservoirs are at 85.1% of its total capacity at what is its highest level (for this date) of the decade. And yet, the fact that there is a lot of water is not news. All of Spain is the same (83.3%). The news is that we are going to spend it. A structural problem called ‘Mediterranean’. Every year, the pressure of the Mediterranean summer and the irrigation campaign empty the reservoirs very quickly. AND, as history has shown usthere is never too much water: “each dry period has served to implement emergency measures for agriculture that were not eliminated when the rains returned, they were used to expand irrigation, aggravating the problem in the following drought”, said Ana Tudela and Antonio Delgado. And that, precisely that, is what we are about to see. The complete image. Seeing the figures for the reservoirs can lead us to forget that, just three years ago, 85% of the basin’s surface was in “prolonged drought“and 45% of them declared themselves in shortage emergency. Mequinenza, the largest swamp, reached historic lows. It was a catastrophe not only in water terms, but also in energy terms. Now, however, all that is in the past. And Say’s Law lurks in the dark. What the old French economist Jean-Baptiste Say argued at the end of the 19th century is that “every supply creates its own demand“and, translated into this situation, this means that the fact that there is more water generates all the incentives in the world for there to be more irrigation. As soon as we do it, this becomes clear. After all, not all of the basin’s storage capacity is enough for a full year of agricultural demand. Without the annual rainfall and the melting of snow, we could already consider all its reserves exhausted. March is the key month. The irrigation campaign runs from April to September and that means that March is the key month for planning the year. It is true that the thaw has not yet begun (which this year is going to be very intense), but it helps us estimate what quantities of water are really available. All irrigated agriculture in the valley depends on the water we are able to store during the spring. The question from now on becomes: how do we conserve as much water as possible before we once again enter a situation of risk? And the problem is that we don’t have answers. Especially in a regulatory context in which are not foreseen widespread restrictions on irrigation. Economic, social and institutional incentives tell us that we are not yet prepared, as a country, to address the really important question: we do not have a water problem, we have a consumption problem. There is still room for improvement in management, yes. But that won’t solve the problem: it only postpones it. And that 85% of reservoir water has given us unbeatable weather, we just have to hope that we can take advantage of it. Image | Manuel Torres Garcia In Xataka | The great battle of the Ebro is not between Murcia and Aragón, it is between the headwaters of the rivers, the large cities and the delta

The great battle of the Ebro is not between Murcia and Aragón, it is between the headwaters of the rivers, the large cities and the delta

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The image is straight out of a movie: a team of divers diving into the cold waters of the Arija reservoir to dredge more than three meters of silt accumulated in front of its floodgates. It’s not a whim, It’s the only way to remove them.: that is, the consequence of having hundreds of infrastructures that have not been thoroughly maintained for decades. But, above all, the most striking symptom of a very deep problem: the sediments are killing, at the same time, the reservoirs and the rivers. Reservoirs due to loss of capacity (Mequinenza has lost since its opening more capacity than the sum of the last three reservoirs put into operation), rivers because deltas need sediment to stay alive. The Ebro, without going any further, needs 1.2 million tons per year. And the authorities know it. In fact, since 2003, the Ebro Hydrographic Confederation has been carrying out controlled floods in the lower section of the river to mobilize sediments towards Tortosa. The problem is that each controlled flood moves about 10,000 tons; that is, two orders of magnitude below what is necessary. It’s like emptying a swimming pool with a coffee spoon. So in the last few months, something has changed. Since November 2024, the CHE began a series of measures to try to fix it. Things like extending the discharge by two days, starting it from much higher up (El Grado in Huesca and Camarasa in Lleida) and draining Ribarroja more than usual to mobilize all the possible sediments. Will it solve the problem? It’s not clear, but it doesn’t seem like it. We have to take into account that, only in the Ebro basin, there are many reservoirs and that is an inevitable brake. Calculations say that of the five million tons that were brought to the Mediterranean before the reservoirs, only between 100,000 and 200,000 now arrive. It would take around 100 floods to reach the appropriate figures. And no, we don’t have enough water for that. So? That is the big problem, seeing what we do. We must not forget that the Ebro delta supports 20,000 hectares of rice fieldstens of thousands of inhabitants and is a biosphere reserve. The loss of wetlands and their salinization have a direct impact on agriculture, fishing and tourism. Come on: the interests are crossed and they confront people hundreds of kilometers away. We are entering a new era of hydrological wars in which we are all against each other. Image | Sinto MQZ In Xataka | The Ebro is filling with brown prawns, an invasive species that we are going to find more and more on our plates.

The Ebro is filling with brown prawns, an invasive species that we are going to find more and more on our plates.

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When a fisherman from Vinaròs arrives at the fish market with his catch of the day, he finds more and more specimens of a crustacean that should not be there: the brown shrimp. Four years ago there were barely one or two per boat. Today there are days when up to 40 kilos are caught. This invasive species has arrived in the Mediterranean, has reproduced, and has no intention of leaving. The presentations. Its scientific name is Penaeus aztecus and comes from the Gulf of Mexico and the east coast of the United States. Although for the non-expert eye, the one who finds a plate of prawns on the table on Christmas Day, at first glance there is not much aesthetic difference with the normal one, there is. Thus, it has a uniform brown color that tends to be yellowish, it lacks those bands characteristic of the native, its body is more stylized and its head is pointed, and its antennae have a characteristic reddish tone. BioInvasions Records. Authors from the Institute of Marine Sciences (CSIC, Barcelona) Chronology of an invasion. The first time They detected the brown shrimp in the Mediterranean It was in Turkish waters in 2009. It possibly arrived as a stowaway in the ballast water of large ships that load water in the Caribbean to stabilize and then release it in Mediterranean ports along with larvae of this invasive species. From there, it has expanded rapidly westward. In 2023 the CSIC confirmed with morphological and genetic analyzes its presence on the Catalan coast and in the area of ​​the Ebro delta. Later, it has been seen in other ports of the Valencian Community and in the Mar Menor (Murcia) in record time. A perfect invasion. But the clearest proof of its expansion is not geographical but biological: the discovery of mature females in the Ebro delta confirms that the species is capable of completing its reproductive cycle in Spanish waters. It is already an established population. The testimony of the fishermen’s brotherhood of the Vinaroz fish market It constitutes a good alarm thermometer, detailing that in just four years they have gone from encountering a unit to capturing 40 kilos and the curve does not stabilize: each campaign surpasses the previous one. The brown shrimp is a thermophilic species. If it has found an ideal new home in the Mediterranean, it is partly because the sea is warming and its waters are already more and more similar to its original habitat. What’s wrong with the shrimp here? At the moment there is no data that shows the collapse of the native shrimp, but there is a reality: it is competing with the brown shrimp for space and food. And there is a mirror in which to look: in the Gulf of Taranto in Italy, the presence of the native shrimp has already reversed. And a reminder: the one with the blue crab. Is it eaten? The “good news” is that brown shrimp is edible and, in fact, gastronomically speaking, it is tasty. However, its market price is noticeably lower: 12-13 euros per kilo compared to more than 40 euros per kilo for native shrimp. But there is an underlying problem: they can give you a hard time and pay for brown shrimp at the price of native shrimp, since it is sold mixed and unlabeled. This is a traceability problem for the consumer. What can be done. Converting the consumption of brown shrimp as a way to control its population is a possibility, either directly or with preparations, although it is imperative to establish regulation in the fish market to differentiate it. In Xataka | The US has such a big problem with Asian carp in its rivers that it has decided something extreme: electrocute them In Xataka | The Iberian Peninsula is being invaded: more than 1,200 exotic species have come to stay Cover | BioInvasions Records and Natural History Sciences

Accumulated sediments are a huge problem for reservoirs. And in the Ebro they have taken drastic measures

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The reservoirs, both those for hydroelectric use and those for consumptive use, are a vital element in the hydrological panorama. However, for some time, experts warn of a problem that is aggravated over time and affects their functionality. He sediment problem. Half year of works. The works initiated last August to recover the drain of the Ebro reservoir will extend, predictably until 2026, according to They have indicated from The Montañés newspaper. The works, in addition to introducing improvements into one of the swamp drains, intend to recover their functionality from the accumulation of sediments in this. The tasks, explains the local newspaper, will require a team of divers for 3.5 meters of accumulated silt next to the drain gates. The works, with a budget of 2.5 million eurosthey will imply the installation in each of the ducts of the security gates with By-Pass and gates for the regulation of flows. The Arija swamp has two drains, one side and the other located in the dam. It is the latter that, as a consequence of the accumulation of sediments, has lost the ability to perform its function. Key reservoir. The Ebro or Pantano de Arija reservoir is a key element in the Ebro hydrographic basin. It is one of the largest reservoirs in this hydrographic demarcation (behind those of Mequinenza and Canelles). Located in the immediate vicinity of the Cantabrian city of Reinosa, the border between this Autonomous Community and that of Castilla y León in the province of Burgos. According to the latest datathe reservoir Albeca now 348 hm³ of water, 64.3% of its capacity (541 hm³). Some data that do not always reflect reality, precisely due to the problem of sediments. Limiting the capacity. The problem of sediments Not only does it affect the functionality of the drains of the reservoirs: they also limit their capacity. Decades of use have led to a significant accumulation of sludge and sediments in the reservoirs, sediments whose volume implies a significant reduction in the storage capacity of the swamps. Estimates of this loss vary significantly, but the most pessimistic talk about a loss of up to 40% of the volume In some basins. A study in 110 reservoirs launched a more optimistic but still alarming estimate, A loss of 5%. The latest rains seem to have helped reverse the drought situation that still affected some areas. However, our ability to prepare for the next drought is limited by this accumulation of sediments in the reservoirs. Where the sediments are missing. As if this were not enough, the problem of the sediments left over on one side is the problem of those missing in another. In this case, In the Ebro Delta. The Ebro delta is nothing more than the result of the accumulation of sediments dragged by the river current. The installation of numerous dams in this hydrographic basin has reduced the arrival of this matter to the mouth, which, together with the natural coastal erosion, has put the delta ecosystem at risk. An ecosystem on which not only depends the local fauna, but also a part of the agriculture and the economy of the region. In Xataka | In a corner of Andalusia the reservoirs are at 94% of their capacity. It seems excellent news, but it is not so much Image | Josu Aramberri, CC by-SA 3.0

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