Stellantis kicks off pact with Leapmotor: Chinese T03 and C10 cars arrive in 9 European countries

Stellantis has 'closed the binding agreement with Leapmotor, which was signed in October, only seven months after it was announced. I think this is important, everything was done very efficiently and effectively. Now we are entering the operational phase of the agreement and planning, we will start exporting Leapmotor vehicles outside the Chinese market'. Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares said this during a joint press conference with Zhu Jiangming, founder and CEO of Leapmotor. In October 2023, Stellantis became a strategic shareholder of Leapmotor with a EUR 1.5 billion investment, acquiring a 20 per cent stake in the Chinese group. The agreement also included the establishment of Leapmotor International, a 51-49 joint venture led by Stellantis, with exclusive rights to export, sell and manufacture Leapmotor products outside the Chinese region.

Many analysts expected the agreement between Stellantis and Leapmotor to evolve into an exchange of technology. Perhaps with the T03 platform being used for new small cars, such as the possible future 500 Electric, which at the moment uses a specific and distinctively different platform from the CMP and SmartCar (an economic derivative of CMP) architectures used for Stellantis' A-segment cars. Furthermore, it could be assumed that the extended range technology (electric car with a thermal engine that recharges the battery) could be integrated into the models of the Stellantis brands to fill a gap in the range and increase competitive pressure on manufacturers such as Nissan, which offers the e-Power, or Toyota, which is a leader in hybrids and is well positioned in the fleet world where the residual value parameter is crucial.

Two integration hypotheses, however, are not on paper. 'At the moment, the agreement with Leapmotor does not involve sharing technology,' says Carlos Tavares, 'but the sale of Leapmotor models outside China. In practice, Stellantis acts as a mere distributor and what Tavares has in fact 'sold' to the Chinese is the gigantic European network of local distributors, dealers and parts logistics partners. In fact, on these activities, the Chinese brands, without a network and parts warehouses worthy of the name, risk finding themselves in trouble. And here Stellantis has instead opened the door to an invasion of Chinese products, and at the direct request of Il Sole 24 Ore, no badge engineering operation is even envisaged, i.e. towing Leapmnotors cars under the Stellantis brand (like Opel, Fiat and Citroën). It is not an immediate possibility at the moment, says Tavares, responding to Il Sole 24 Ore, but it remains a hypothesis. However, Tavares explains, introducing a new Leapmotors brand, on the one hand has inevitable marketing costs, but there are great advantages on the side of economies of scale in distribution.

"We want it to be a success, the goal is to sell and produce Leapmotor vehicles outside of China, that is the purpose of this joint venture, bringing smart and affordable electric vehicles to the market quickly," said Tavares, explaining that the agreement will bring a number of benefits, both to Stellantis and Leapmotor. "The first is the acceleration with which we bring Ev to the market, the second is that we provide excellent technologies, the best available, cost-effective. The third point will be the fact that Stellantis will have the opportunity to have more Evs available to bring to market, making progress in the execution of the Dare Forward 2030 strategic plan," Tavares said.

"We are in the process of homologating the models and will open sales in September," Tavares added, explaining that the nine countries to which Leapmotor models will initially be exported are Italy, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Romania, Spain and Portugal. Tavares explained that this will be the first phase of the execution of the agreement with LeapMotor, with whom 'there is a solid product plan to launch models by 2027'.