Santana Motors plans to enter the Dakar Rally in 2026 with a T1+ car piloted by Jesús Calleja. Company CEO Edu Blanco will serve as navigator.

The company is a revival of the Santana Motor brand that existed from 1956 to 2011. Owned by the Spanish government and based in Linares, Santana had a longstanding partnership with Land Rover to bring the British off-road vehicles to Spain. Land Rover Santana proved to be popular among the Spanish populace until the collaboration ended in 1990. Santana also had a brief spell with Suzuki for a similar approach with the Jimny and Vitara, as well as IVECO with the Massif.

Financial losses eventually led to Santana’s shutdown in 2011.

In April, the Santana factory in Linares reopened and the marque’s name brought back as part of a new joint venture with Chinese companies Zhengzhou Nissan and Anhui Coronet. Zhengzhou Nissan is co-operated by Nissan and Dongfeng, while Anhui Coronet specailizes in EVs.

Under the new project, the Linares factory will build off-road diesel and hybrid cars with the Santana name.

Santana Racing Team will compete with the Santana Pick-Up T1+ Ultimate. Calleja had announced his return to Dakar in July.

The program sounds remarkably similar, almost a carbon copy, of EBRO Audax Motorsport. Like Santana, EBRO was a longtime Spanish truck maker who shut down before being revived by Nissan and a Chinese company. Blanco even developed an EBRO electric car that appeared at the 2022 Dakar Rally.

Both the Santana and EBRO T1+ cars are based on Century Racing’s CR7. Century provided technical support to EBRO during their debut at last week’s Rallye du Maroc.

Featured image credit: Santana Motors