Last week, Stellantis and Leapmotor announced a long-term partnership and the creation of a joint venture, Leapmotor International, to sell Chinese electric vehicles outside of China. The goals are very ambitious: to reach the sales level of 500,000 cars by 2030, and Leapmotor electric cars will appear in Europe next year, writes Wheels.
The deal between Stellantis and Leapmotor is unique. For the first time, a Western auto giant is forming a joint venture with a Chinese company, not to develop its business in China, but to promote Chinese cars in foreign markets. Recall that Stellantis will invest 1.5 billion euros in Leapmotor, will become the owner of 20% of the shares of the Chinese company, and will receive two seats on its board of directors—those directors have already been appointed, they are experienced managers Gregoire Olivier and Doug Ostermann.
It is not yet clear how the deal will affect the poor state of Stellantis' own brands in China, but that is not the main thing at the moment. The main one is the launch of the joint venture Leapmotor International, which is headquartered in the Netherlands. The controlling block of shares (51%) of Leapmotor International will belong to Stellantis, and its CEO will also be appointed by Stellantis. Leapmotor International will have the exclusive right to export, sell, and manufacture Leapmotor models outside the “Greater China” region, which includes Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan. There are no concrete plans yet to manufacture Leapmotor electric cars outside of China, but they could be developed quickly if, for example, Europe begins to avoid high Chinese electric car import duties and other administrative methods.
Stellantis CFO Natalie Knight, quoted by Automotive News Europe, called Leapmotor the fifteenth brand in the corporation's portfolio. The remaining fourteen are Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Citroen, Dodge, DS, Fiat, Jeep, Lancia, Maserati, Opel, Peugeot, Ram, and Vauxhall.
By the end of this year, the sales of Stellantis' own electric cars in the world may exceed 300,000 units. Leapmotor will be separate from other brands; they will not get the Leapmotor platform and will develop within their own four-platform plan announced in 2021, which was recently supplemented by a fifth, budget platform.
Leapmotor is considered one of the most successful and promising Chinese startups; it was founded in 2015 by engineer Jiangming Zhu. The first Leapmotor model was launched in 2019, and now there are four models in the range, all of which are electric from the start. The popular C11 crossover and C01 sedan—in the photo above—have also recently been added with plug-in hybrid versions where the gasoline internal combustion engine is used in order to extend the electric range. Leapmotor's strengths include a good price/quality balance, in-house production of microelectronics—including processors, and a high rate of technical evolution.
