Stellantis ships to Europe first fully electric cars produced in venture with China’s Leapmotor

MILAN (AP) —

Carmaker Stellantis has shipped the first electric vehicles produced under a joint venture with China’s Leapmotor to Europe, with the first models to go on sale next month.

Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares called the shipment from China of the C10 SUVs and T03 five-door city cars “a landmark moment in this partnership.” They were produced by the Leapmotor International joint venture, which Stellantis leads with a 51% share, to Leapmotor’s 49%.

“I strongly believe that Leapmotor’s electric vehicles will be strongly accepted by European customers,’’ Tavares said.

The vehicles will be sold at 200 locations in Europe by the end of this year, more than doubling to 500 by the end of 2026. Stellantis also will expand Leapmotor sales to the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and South America toward the end of the year.

For the moment, Stellantis is paying a tariff of about 30% to 38% on cars it imports to Europe from China, but Tavares told reporters this month that he plans to assemble Leapmotor vehicles in Europe “to get around these tariffs.”

The European Commission imposed the tariffs earlier this month to address what it called unfair undercutting of EU industry pricing. Chinese-built electric cars jumped from 3.9% of the EV market in 2020 to 25% by September 2023.

Tavares said he did not agree with the tariffs, which he said were introduced to correct “the strategic mistake” of banning new gasoline and diesel cars and vans by 2035.

Leapmotor has sold over 400,000 electric vehicles in China through the first half of July. It had the fourth-highest sales among Chinese new energy vehicle startups in June.