A western auto giant found a lifeline: working with a Chinese upstart

When Antonio Filosa took the reins of global automaker Stellantis a year ago, the company was in free fall: Sales were plunging, factories were vastly underused and profit was evaporating.

- Ryan Felton & Christina Rogers

Stellantis's deal with Leapmotor gives it access to low-cost EV technology.

(PHOTO: STELLANTIS)

Yet one piece of Stellantis’s struggling business has given a glimmer of hope for Filosa: a partnership with an obscure Chinese automaker called Leapmotor.

Stellantis in 2023 became the largest shareholder of Leapmotor, and the two launched a joint venture to sell the upstart’s cars all over the world. The alliance has since been a rousing success that gave Filosa a boost during a period of disarray. Last September, he even boasted that Leapmotor was outselling Chinese giant BYD in large European countries such as Germany.

Last week, as part of Stellantis’s $70 billion turnaround strategy rolled out to investors, Filosa announced a plan to take the Leapmotor deal to the next level: The Chinese company’s cars will help keep Stellantis’s largely underused European factories humming for years.

“It’s been a very good thing that the team—the previous team, but also the current team—has been able to deliver for Stellantis,” Filosa said recently at the company’s headquarters.

By investing in and forging partnerships with automakers such as Leapmotor, Stellantis hopes to make better use of vacant factory space, which will keep fixed costs down, and take advantage of Chinese know-how for electric and hybrid cars. Stellantis is currently only using 60% of its total factory capacity in Europe.