In a 1969 profile, Eduardo Barreiros described reinvestment as the principle behind his success, even as his company faced difficulties. Chrysler had acquired 77% of Barreiros Diésel two years earlier. The Madrid operation had grown from a business focused on diesel engines and commercial vehicles into a broader industrial group.
Barreiros said he had put all his profits back into industry without fear. The account appeared in Diario SP under the title ‘Eduardo Barreiros: una historia ejemplar’ and described the team effort behind the business. A later account in Motor16 said Barreiros created 26 companies in roughly 10 years, covering industrial engines and vehicles such as trucks, buses, tractors and vans.
His route into manufacturing began after the Civil War. Experience as a mechanic and chauffeur helped him assemble a small public-transport fleet from assorted second-hand parts. Its petrol engines consumed too much fuel, so he set about converting them to diesel. Barreiros, a Galician industrialist, began as an apprentice in a workshop in Ourense before moving to Madrid in the 1950s and establishing his industrial operation in Villaverde.
After repeated attempts, he dieselised two Krupp trucks from the Republican side in the conflict. That work came before the company was established. He later developed the EB1 diesel engine using the base of two Perkins engines that were not yet patented in Spain. His later engineering work included the six-cylinder EB6. In 1957, the company built its first all-terrain truck, the TT90, known at the factory as “El Abuelo.”
Barreiros's company was already in a difficult position when Chrysler bought its stake. Before taking control of the Madrid factory, the American company had partnered with Barreiros as he moved into passenger cars. The resulting Spanish production program included the Simca 1000 and Simca 1200, as well as the Dodge Dart. One agreed commitment, providing access to Chrysler's worldwide sales network, was not fulfilled. The founding partners eventually sold their shares to the American company, and Barreiros signed a contract barring him from making or designing engines and vehicles, or marketing them, for five years.
A separate account of Grupo Iveco's Spanish network described Madrid and Valladolid as key sites for its truck division, a later chapter in Spain's vehicle industry. Stellantis-related operations now occupy the Villaverde site Barreiros built. Barreiros later moved to Cuba and began another industrial project involving Taíno engines. He ended his life there, welcomed and received as a hero.
