The second largest European car company, Stellantis, is considering working with a Chinese supplier in the rapidly growing electric car market in the People’s Republic of China. The group is said to have examined a cooperation with the provider Leapmotor, among others.
Like its competitors, Stellantis is considering investing in a local electric car maker to boost its business in China, Bloomberg news agency reported on Wednesday, citing insiders. The considerations are still in progress and there is still no final decision, it said. The company did not want to comment on the information to Bloomberg. For the group, which is legally based in Amsterdam, a major entry into China would be a significant step. Stellantis boss Carlos Tavares called off a joint venture with the Chinese supplier GAC for Jeep production last year because he was dissatisfied with the progress of the plans. The world’s largest car market also plays a role in the multi-brand group (including Peugeot, Fiat, Chrysler , Jeep) only a minor role. Including non-consolidated joint ventures, Stellantis delivered just around 90,000 cars in the Asia-Pacific region including China and India in the first half of the year. For comparison: Rival Volkswagen delivered 1.45 million vehicles in China alone. This year, the core brand VW passenger cars in the country had to cede the market leadership it had held for decades to local competitor BYD because the Chinese were much better received by customers with their affordable electric cars than VW. VW boss Oliver Blume also does not want to get involved in the discount battle in the People’s Republic on a large scale. Instead, VW is countering this with investments worth billions and new models and recently even announced that it wants to develop cars on their platforms together with the Chinese electric car manufacturer Xpeng gain a foothold in the market faster. Volkswagen was also recently said in media reports to also be negotiating with Leapmotor – the group did not want to comment on this with reference to “speculation”.
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