Leaping ahead... note on Stellantis and the strategic future
- Matthias Schmidt
- May 13
- 2 min read
Are Stellantis about to turn from being the ugly duckling of the automotive industry to the elegant swan?
Following the exclusive from Les Echos at the tail end of last year, the publication that first highlighted plans about an Opel model to be based on a Leapmotor architecture, the confirmation from the Euro-American-Sino outfit rubber-stamps the former CEO Carlos Tavares’s foresight in getting into bed with, at the time, a relatively unknown Chinese outfit.
Stellantis could be turning from the laggard of the industry with an increasingly dated architectural portfolio to a highly profitable outfit with relatively low investment costs, a good light-truck exposure in a profitable US market, a proven EV architecture turning up like a rabbit pulled out of a hat at a magic show, and thirdly, a route back into the world’s largest market, China.
Addressing an underutilisation equation in Europe will boost the company further alongside the wider procurement reach when it comes to EVs, the low-cost vertical integration element of Leampmotor, alongside the accelerated drive to hit regulatory emission CAFE targets.
If things play out, that extraordinary €23 million payout for the magician behind this move, Tavares, is starting to look as much of a steal as Stellantis's original €1.5 billion to acquire approximately 20% of Leapmotor and 51% of the international JV Leapmotor International.
The only question is how much of those profits from the Leapmotor-based models remain on Stellantis’s books and how much flows back into China.
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*Western Europe 18 Markets: EU Member States prior to the 2004 enlargement plus EFTA markets Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, plus UK
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