Stellantis is planning to build an EV powerhouse in China with a €1.5 billion bid to secure a 20% stake in Chinese electric car manufacturer Leapmotor.
In a decade when Stellantis is steadily encouraging its dealers to retail a number of its group brands from shared locations, this might lead to existing Stellantis franchisees across Europe being able to add Leapmotor car showrooms in the medium term, plus other Stellantis products underpinned by its Chinese partner’s technologies.
The deal will see the partners create Leapmotor International, a 51/49 Stellantis-led joint venture that will have exclusive rights to export. sell, and manufacturer Leapmotor products outside Greater China from next summer. as well as boosting Leapmotor’s sales in China.
The two companies said Leapmotor’s EV products fit in to Stellantis’ current technology and portfolio of brands well, allowing the European car manufacturer to offer more affordable mobility solutions and to exploit Leapmotor’s expertise to help meet its own 2030 electrification targets.
Leapmotor was the world’s first pure-play EV company to implement Cell-to-Chassis technology on a large scale, and its ‘Four-Leaf Clover’ Leap 3.0 centrally-controlled new electric and electronic architecture.Focused on the fast growing mid-to-high end market, Leapmotor delivered 111,000 EVs in 2022, placing it into the first tier among China’s NEV pure-play car makers. In the next three years, Leapmotor’s product plan is expected to cover the full range of A- to-E segments, based on one technical architecture with three scalable platforms with BEV and range extender EV powertrains.
“As consolidation unfolds among the capable electric vehicles start-ups in China, it becomes increasingly apparent that a handful of efficient and agile new generation EV players, like Leapmotor, will come to dominate the mainstream segments in China,” said Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares. “We feel it’s the perfect time to take a leading role in supporting the global expansion plans of Leapmotor.”
Leapmotor CEO Zhu Jiangming said: “Developed with our in-house, full-suite technology capabilities, Leapmotor brings to the market the best-in-class EV products in a most cost competitive way. We believe in win-win partnerships formed by strong players in the fast-evolving environment. Working with Stellantis, we will continue to be innovative and creative in technology and business synergies and will bring Leapmotor EV cars to the global market.”
“The moves by Volkswagen Group (acquiring a 5% stake in XPENG) & Stellantis – if & when it does happen – clearly points to European Legacy Inc. acknowledging the Chinese market,” said independent expert Tu Le of Sino Auto Insights, “which is arguably their most important, and which is slipping away from their grasp and one which it would be extremely tough to re-enter if they gave up on it now.
“There are also a number of questions that emerge: will Stellantis now be one of the advocates for importing China-made EVs into Europe? What does Macron and the French government think about China EV Inc. now? Does this increase pressure on European automakers (read: Gernman automakers) to follow up with their own bold moves? NIO partnering with Mercedes-Benz AG in particular?” he said.
“This won’t be the last major move made by Legacy Auto Inc. EV adoption will continue to put stress on their strategies and operations in new and still undefined areas,” he said, pointing out that XPeng’s Brian Gu has termed what is currently happening in China’s domestic market as the ‘smartification’ phase of EVs, adding that “there will be more pushes to ‘partner’ with technology and technology-adjacent companies as the US & Europe enter that phase – likely still more than two years out.”
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- Source: https://www.am-online.com/news/manufacturer/2023/10/26/stellantis-to-become-strategic-shareholder-in-china-s-pure-play-leapmotor
