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Stellantis and Ford said partnerships with both Chinese carmakers and traditional rivals were increasingly important for survival in a European market squeezed by high costs and weak demand.
“The concept of partnerships should . . . not be only Chinese,” Antonio Filosa, Stellantis chief executive, said at the FT’s Future of the Car Summit in London. “Chinese [carmakers] are strong players that are coming with a lot of power to Europe but . . . also we might look at others.”
Jim Baumbick, European head of Ford, said Chinese auto manufacturers’ “massive scale” was an advantage when exporting cars to Europe. “We have to find our own way in Europe to generate competitive scale. We believe doing that through partnerships is a way to compete,” he said at the summit.
Stellantis has expanded its partnership with China’s Leapmotor in a deal that aims to secure the future of its two Spanish plants and deepen collaboration in EV development. The owner of the Fiat, Peugeot and Jeep brands is also talking with Dongfeng, its former joint venture partner in China which retains a stake in the European carmaker, to address spare European capacity, including in France.
Filosa declined to comment on the long-term business plan for Stellantis he will unveil next week. But he said partnerships could provide a “roadmap of technological improvement, supply chain improvement and maybe capacity utilisation”.
Its rival Ford is in talks with China’s Geely to create a European partnership as the US carmaker seeks to revive its struggling passenger vehicle business in the continent through manufacturing and technology tie-ups.
Geely was finalising a deal to invest in Ford’s plant in Spain, according to two people close to the negotiations.
Baumbick declined to comment on these talks but stressed that the group was seeking partnerships “to generate speed and scale”.
Ford in December announced a partnership with France’s Renault to jointly produce small electric cars and vans.
Ford has already reduced the number of vehicles in its line-up to focus on more profitable areas of the highly competitive market.
Chief executive Jim Farley signalled this year that the company was going to strengthen its passenger car business, citing “exciting plans for Europe”.
“The goal is not just to play everywhere [in the European market]. It’s very surgical, very purposeful,” Baumbick said. “Target specific customers . . . in a way that’s sustainable.”
In the US, where Chinese companies faced higher barriers to selling their cars, Filosa said it was hard to imagine partnerships with Chinese manufacturers in the next two years, but did not rule out co-operation with other partners.
Stellantis became one of the first western carmakers to strike a partnership with a Chinese manufacturer when it bought a 21 per cent stake in Leapmotor in 2023.
The companies said last week that Leapmotor would take control of Stellantis’s plant in Madrid, where it will start production of a model for sale in the European market in 2028.
Stellantis and Leapmotor are also jointly developing an electric SUV under the Opel brand, which will be produced at a plant in Zaragoza and the two companies said they would purchase parts together to save costs.
The move to produce more in Europe supports efforts by Chinese carmakers such as Leapmotor to expand their sales internationally in the face of aggressive price competition in China that have put profits under pressure.
Scaling up operations in Europe could also help Chinese manufacturers meet the EU’s “Made in Europe” manufacturing targets and access government subsidies in the continent, while avoiding tariffs on EVs imported from China.
Additional reporting by Sarah White in London
