TMTPost -- Stellantis NV, owner of Chrysler, FIAT and many other iconic brands, gets ready for mass shipment of electric vehicles (EVs) made by Zhejiang Leapmotor Technologies Ltd., its Chinese partner, amid elevated EV tariff threat imposed by the European Union.

Credit：Stellantis

The first shipment of 800 Leapmotor EVs is en route from China, Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares said at an earnings call last week. Leapmotor International, a venture co-founded by Stellantis and Leapmotor, has shipped the first batch of Leapmotor electric vehicles - C10 SUVs and T03 cars - from Shanghai, China, to European ports this month, according to a Stellantis statement released Tuesday.

“The shipment of Leapmotor C10 and T03 vehicles to Europe this month is a landmark moment in the partnership between Stellantis and Leapmotor,” said Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares. “This demonstrates our commitment to providing innovative, affordable and sustainable mobility solutions to our customers. Relying on Stellantis’ strong business assets in Europe and the hard work of our companies’ teams on guaranteeing product innovation and quality, I strongly believe that Leapmotor’s electric vehicles will be widely accepted by European customers. We are excited about the opportunities this partnership brings and look forward to a successful journey together.”

Stellantis, the world’s fourth largest automaker by sales last year, announced last October that it agreed to spend 1.5 billion euros to acquire around a stake of about 20% in Leapmotor. The two companies also decided to set up Leapmotor International, a joint venture in which Stellantis owns a 51% stake and have the exclusive rights for the export, sale and production of Leapmotor vehicles outside Greater China.

The joint venture is expected to begin shipments in the second half of 2024 starting in Europe, aiming to sell 500,000 units outside of China by 2030, according to Stallantis’ presentation about earnings for the third quarter of 2023. It said Leapmotor targets sales of 1 million units annually in China in the long run, capitalizing on position as tech-led, pure-EV domestic leader. It expected the venture will have no material impact to Stellantis’ industry-leading adjusted operating income (AOI) margins.

At an earnings conference late October 2023, Stellantis Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Natalie Knight described Leapmotor as Stellantis’ 15th brand, with sales and revenues of the joint venture fully consolidated into its balance sheet. Europe will be the first market for Leapmotor's EVs, and the venure will distribute the company’s vehicles to other global markets, with long-term exclusive distribution on cars sold outside China, said Knight. The venture also includes the option to produce Leapmotor cars in Europe to avoid potential high tariffs imposed on vehicles built in China from an EU investigation, Knight told analysts.

When releasing earnings of the year 2023 in February Stellantis CEO Tavares was reported to divulge that the company may build Chinese EVs in Europe for Leapmotor if there was a good business case to support the strategy. Tavares mentioned Stellantis’ Mirafiori plant in Turin as the potential home to Chinese EV builds for Leapmotor. Stellantis’ local dealers in the European market would then sell those EVs.

Stellantis is mulling building up to 150,000 EVs per year in in its Mirafiori complex in Turin, the capital city of Piedmont in northern Italy, and the production may start as soon as 2026 or 2027, Automotive News Europe reported following Tavares’ comments. If the reported production materialized, it would be helpful for Stellantis to meet its long-term production goal for all of its Italian factories, which may ease tensions between the world’s third largest automaker by revenue and the Italian government.

Leapmotor CEO Xin Tianshu revealed in May that Stellantis will begin sales of EVs from his company in nine European markets in September, including Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Greece and Romania.

A Stellantis spokesperson confirmed the first pre-series units of the Leapmotor T03 model have been assmbled at the auto giant’s factory in Tychy, Poland. The factory, scheduled for mass production of the T03 in September, “meets all requirements in terms of quality, cost and available capacity," the spokesperson said.