Stellantis, the automotive behemoth that has no fewer than 16 manufacturers in its portfolio, together with Dodge, Fiat, and Jeep, desires to make low cost EVs extra available with a little bit of assist from a brand new Chinese language associate known as Leapmotor.
After a $1.6 billion (1.5 billion Euro) funding, Stellantis will personal a 20 % fairness stake in Leapmotor’s father or mother firm, and the 2 will arrange a three way partnership that may – you guessed it – export the Chinese language producer’s battery-powered vehicles in different components of the world.
The brand new JV, known as Leapmotor Worldwide, will probably be included within the Netherlands and the primary market to get the reasonably priced Chinese language EVs will probably be Europe, with extra scheduled to observe, based on Stellantis’ third-quarter monetary outcomes name.
In different phrases, the US may lastly get a low-cost however technologically superior EV due to Stellantis’ newest enterprise, however till that occurs, we’ll have to attend and see how Leapmotor’s vehicles will fare on the Previous Continent, the place there are already a number of sub-$25,000 EVs to select from.
Actually, Citroen, which is a part of Stellantis, just lately revealed the brand new European-built e-C3, which begins at round $24,500 (23,300 Euro). There’s additionally the Chinese language-made Dacia Spring from rival firm Renault that goes from $24,000 (22,750 Euro) on the listing of no-frills EVs, so will probably be attention-grabbing to see how the automotive group will worth the vehicles will probably be importing to Europe.
The most cost effective mannequin made by Leapmotor, the pint-sized T03 that measures simply 142.5 inches lengthy, begins at about $10,900 (RMB 79,500) in China, earlier than tariffs and country-specific value-added tax (VAT), so there’s some wiggle room, a minimum of at first sight.
![Leapmotor T03](https://cdn.motor1.com/images/static/16x9-tr.png)
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However Leapmotor additionally makes the dearer C01 sedan and C11 SUV, together with their extended-range (EREV) variations, so the jury remains to be out on how Stellantis will market these Chinese language vehicles on the Previous Continent, particularly contemplating how Leapmotor has centered on the mid- to the high-end market in its dwelling nation, based on Stellantis’ personal press launch.
The primary batch of exported EVs will attain European shores subsequent 12 months, with the newly shaped three way partnership concentrating on 500,000 gross sales exterior of China by 2030, plus a further a million vehicles per 12 months in China in the long run.
Stellantis CFO Natalie Knight mentioned through the firm’s third-quarter earnings name that the brand new model is geared toward customers “who’re value acutely aware however need the perfect know-how of their merchandise,” referring to Leapmotor autos’ skill to obtain over-the-air (OTA) updates, in addition to their proprietary “4-Leaf Clover” Leap 3.0 centrally-controlled electrical and digital structure.
With all this in thoughts, do you assume an affordable, Chinese language-made EV bought by Stellantis will ever make it to the US? Tell us within the feedback beneath.