The Franco-Italian group Stellantis (Peugeot, Citroën, Fiat, Jeep, etc.) is said to be in talks with the Chinese firm Leapmotor in order to establish a partnership. The latter would aim to develop future electric cars in common in order to reduce costs in particular.
Chinese manufacturers have grown in importance over the past few years, so much so that the country is now the world’s leading car exporter. This does not please specialists, who fear that Europe will become a simple importer. So much so that Brussels has announced a series of measures to avoid this.
A technological partnership
However, it will be difficult to fight against this trend, while many brands from the Middle Kingdom are developing here. We think in particular of MG, whose MG4 exceeds the Tesla Model 3, but also of Nio, BYD or even Xpeng. But if these manufacturers sell cars to us, they also want to interfere more subtly.
How ? In establishing partnerships with European manufacturers. And this is precisely what a young brand is about to do, which has also recently been present on the Old Continent. This is Leapmotor, which markets the T03 with us that we were able to test a little earlier in the year. and which competes directly with the Dacia Spring.
According to information from Bloomberg, the firm could join forces with a large European group. This is Stellantis, the result of the merger in 2021 of FCA and PSA. To tell the truth, it’s not a big surprise, since Leapmotor announced a month ago to be about to sell its technologies to a foreign company, without giving details.
But what will be the objective of this new alliance? In fact, there will be several. But the first will be share knowledge and innovations, in order to reduce development costs. But for the moment, we do not necessarily know who will give their technologies to whom. Should we expect to see Peugeots with Leapmotor bases? Not necessarily.
Development in China
Because it is also possible, and it is more than probable, that the Stellantis group rather shares its platforms with the manufacturer Chinese. But for the moment, nothing has yet been confirmed, while this association is currently under consideration. We will therefore have to wait before having more details on this subject. Especially since the European firm is not the only one to be interested.
Indeed, this is also the case of Volkswagen, which could also form a partnership with the manufacturer, founded in 2015. For its part, the main interested parties do not wish to confirm this information. But this alliance between Stellantis and Leapmotor could have another advantage: to help the group to regain the hair of the beast in China. And for good reason, the brands of the former PSA group are not in good shape there.
Sales fell sharply in over the past few years, and the trend is accelerating as Chinese manufacturers make strong progress. On the side of the FCA brands, it is even more complicated because the joint venture with GAC to sell the cars on site has simply been stopped. Stellantis is therefore betting on this partnership to get back in shape in China, taking advantage of the positive image of Leapmotor.
We remember, however, that the PSA group was also betting on its merger with Fiat/Chrysler to return to the United States, but that did not succeed. Be that as it may, for the past few months, European manufacturers have taken a strong interest in Chinese brands, since Audi has partnered with IM Motors while Volkswagen has formed an alliance with Xpeng.
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