Stellantis aims to strengthen its position in the growing EV market with this
Stellantis has announced that it plans to invest €1.5 billion (about RM7,537,377,385) to acquire approximately 20 percent of Leapmotor, a Chinese electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer, making it a major shareholder. The deal is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals but should be finalised soon.
The deal also outlines the formation of Leapmotor International, a 51/49 Stellantis-led joint venture that has exclusive rights for the export and sale, as well as manufacturing, of Leapmotor products outside Greater China. This will be an industry-first global EV relationship between a leading automaker and a Chinese pure-play NEV OEM.
Moreover, the partnership aims to further boost Leapmotor’s sales in China, the biggest market in the world, while leveraging Stellantis’ established global commercial presence to significantly accelerate Leapmotor brand sales in other regions, starting with Europe.
Stellantis also intends to leverage Leapmotor’s highly innovative, cost-efficient EV ecosystem in China to help meet core Dare Forward 2030 electrification targets, with the possibility to further explore mutually beneficial synergies. The joint venture expects to begin shipments in the second half of 2024.
The two companies consider Leapmotor’s EV product offering to be complementary to Stellantis’ current technology and portfolio of iconic brands and will bring more affordable mobility solutions to global customers. The former will also have two seats on Leapmotor’s Board of Directors and will appoint the CEO of the Leapmotor International joint venture.
Leapmotor was the world’s first pure-play EV company to implement Cell-to-Chassis technology on a large scale, and its ‘Four-Leaf Clover’ Leap 3.0 central-controlled new electric and electronic architecture achieves seamless and efficient collaboration within the core components of smart EVs.
On top of that, founded in early 2021, but combining more than a century of experience, Stellantis has 14 iconic automotive brands and two mobility businesses that aim to provide clean, safe and affordable freedom of mobility to all leveraging industrial operations in more than 30 countries with customers in more than 130 markets.
In 2022, Stellantis shipped over 6 million vehicles with Net revenues of €179.5 billion (around RM901,913,808,070) and Net profit of €16.8 billion (about RM84,413,102,928). In the first half of 2023, the Company had Net revenues of €98.4 billion (approximately RM494,419,602,864).
As far as Net profit goes, Stellantis reported a figure of €10.9 billion (roughly RM54,758,788,018) and one of the highest Adjusted operating income (AOI) margins in the industry at 14.4 percent.
