TL;DRStellantis CEO says the company sees “space” for Chinese Leapmotor EVs in Canada and Mexico but “no space” in the US right now.
Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa said on Thursday that the company sees opportunity to produce and sell Chinese-branded vehicles in Mexico and potentially Canada. In the United States, the answer is different. “Now there is no space in the United States. We don’t see that,” Filosa said at a news conference following the company’s investor day near Detroit.
The statement is remarkable for what it concedes. Stellantis, the parent of Jeep, Ram, Dodge, and Chrysler, is openly discussing using its own plants to produce vehicles designed by a Chinese competitor. The partner is Zhejiang Leapmotor Technology, in which Stellantis holds a 21% stake.
Stellantis also owns 51% of a joint venture with Leapmotor. The JV gives Stellantis exclusive rights to sell and manufacture Leapmotor products outside greater China. That structure makes Stellantis both a legacy Detroit automaker and a licensed distributor of Chinese EVs.
The 💜 of EU techThe latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!The most obvious candidate for production is Stellantis’ assembly plant in Brampton, Ontario. The facility, a suburb of Toronto, has not produced a vehicle since the Dodge Charger and Challenger ended production in December 2023. Bloomberg reported in April that Stellantis was in discussions with Leapmotor about building EVs at the idled plant.
