Caribbean Electric Vehicles opens an assembly plant in Holguín
14ymedio, Miguel García, Holguín, 24 March 2025 — The Héroes del 26 de Julio Mechanical Company, a state firm of Holguín dedicated to the manufacture of agricultural equipment and implements, has a new line of business”: the assembly of electric tricycles. It is a project that has been carried out since the beginning of the year with the Chinese-Cuban joint venture Vehículos Eléctricos del Caribe (Vedca), which has been prominent in the precarious market of the Island for several years.
As explained by the official media, the parts of the cargo tricycles, model C400, come from China, and the vehicles are sold in dollars through the Islagrande platform, based in Canada.
Anyone interested in buying any of them, “pays online, and we and the buyer receive the confirmation at the time of the purchase,” explained a commercial in a report broadcast on national television last week. “Once you are notified, you can come in and pick up your product.”
The prices on the page, says Esteban, a recent buyer of one of these tricycles, are between 3,500 and 3,700 dollars
The prices on the page, Esteban, a recent buyer of one of these tricycles, tells 14ymedio are between 3,500 and 3,700 dollars. However, he has also seen them sold under the table. “Some private individuals who can buy online, because they have a family or account abroad, buy them and resell them more expensively for dollars in cash.”
In the same way, he criticizes, even if they are assembled locally, they are not sold in Cuban pesos, “as was said at the beginning.”
He does praise their efficiency, at least for the moment. “They have quality, in the sense that they are new,” he says, based on the experience of his own tricycle, with which he moves goods and passengers. With the advantage, he adds, that unlike other brands, “the front tire serves the rear ones, requiring only one spare tire, which is a savings.”
According to information from Canal Caribe, the factory is currently preparing 48 teams, and they are waiting for “an upcoming shipment,” without specifying the figure. “This process is important in our production system, since it allows us to continue with this business and open us up to other companies and producers that want to use our knowledge,” Ramón Piferrer, director of domestic trade of the Héroes del 26 de Julio, told Cuban Television.
Santiago de Cuba, Camagüey and Havana also participate in this type of agreement, says the news. The assembly plant in the capital, paid for by Tianjin Dongxing, was built on 9,000 square meters ceded by the Cuban Government and has 60 workers.
Vedca, the first joint project signed by China and Cuba in the automotive field, has been operating at least since 2019, but it was in 2022 that Havana signed the agreement between the Chinese Tianjin Dongxing and the Cuban Minerva to collaborate on the “renewal of the car fleet” on the Island.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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