Stellantis Luton plant closed on March 31, 2025
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Stellantis Luton plant closed on March 31, 2025
- As was seriously considered since last year, the Stellantis group announced the closure of its British plant in Luton, which had only produced vans (thermal and battery electric) in the N1-2 segment since 2002, i.e. since the end of production of the Opel/Vauxhall Vectra sedan. This plant was one of the two Opel/Vauxhall factories present on British soil, along with the one in Ellesmere Port, which continues to assemble battery electric vans in the N1-1 segment (Opel/Vauxhall e-Combo, Citroën e- Berlingo , Peugeot e-Partner) since the end of the Opel/Vauxhall Astra sedan in 2022, transferred to the German site in Rüsselsheim.
- The production volume of the Luton plant had not exceeded 86,671 vehicles in 2024. The models produced were the Opel/Vauxhall Vivaro, Citroën Jumpy, Peugeot Expert and Fiat Scudo. These models, also produced at the French plant of Hordain, will be transferred to two different sites, Hordain which produced 157,689 vehicles in 2024 and which will take over the thermal versions of the vans produced in Luton (74,671 units in 2024), and Ellesmere Port in the United Kingdom which produced 17,911 vehicles in 2024 and which will take over the battery electric versions of the vans produced in Luton (12,000 units in 2024), the Stellantis group wishing to group together the electric versions of its N1-1 and N1-2 vans on the same site, that of Ellesmere Port.
- This decision was also taken considering that the production capacity of the Hordain site (180,000 vehicles per year) was insufficient to receive all of Luton's production.
Stellantis stopped the assembly of the Leapmotor T03 in Europe
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Stellantis stopped the assembly of the Leapmotor T03 in Europe
- The Stellantis group got closer to the Chinese carmaker Leapmotor in October 2023. This carmaker had just produced 113,500 electric cars in 2022 compared to 45,000 in 2021, and was about to produce 145,000 in 2023. It was a small carmaker but whose sales growth could impress. This is the reason why Leapmotor was approached by Stellantis, which was considering collaborating with a Chinese carmaker with strong potential other than Dongfeng, with which it had already been working for many years (as PSA) for the production in China of European models under license.
- Stellantis has partnered with Leapmotor in a strategic partnership aimed at combining Leapmotor's technological expertise with Stellantis's global commercial presence to accelerate the transition to electric mobility. Key milestones include:
1. Strategic investment: in October 2023, Stellantis acquires a 20% stake in Leapmotor.
2. Creation of Leapmotor International: joint venture owned 51% by Stellantis and 49% by Leapmotor, to manage the production, export and sale of Leapmotor vehicles outside China.
3. Launch of international operations: In 2024 , Leapmotor International began operations in Europe, with models such as the T03 and C10, and planned expansion into other regions such as Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, and South America.
4. First deliveries: In July 2024, Leapmotor shipped its first batch of T03 electric vehicles from China to Europe. Nearly 3,300 Leapmotor T03s were assembled in SKD at the Tichy plant (Poland) between July 2024 and March 2025 for the European market.
- In March 2025, Stellantis announced that it would stop assembling these models for economic reasons (the assembly of Chinese electric cars in Europe could not benefit from the exemption of European additional tariffs applied to electric cars imported from China or neither from the ecological bonus - in France). The Leapmotor T03s sold in Europe will now come from China.
MG to produce cars in Europe
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MG to produce cars in Europe
- MG (a legacy of the British MG brand) is one of the brands belonging to the Chinese group SAIC , just like Roewe (a legacy of the British Rover brand) or Maxus (a legacy of the British LDV brand). SAIC also assembles cars under license for Volkswagen and GM, an activity that has been declining for several years. Only the Wuling brand (of which SAIC holds 50.1% of the capital) is emerging thanks to the success of its small electric models (Hongguang Mini EV and Bingo).
- MG is a small carmaker in China (less than 2% of the local market) but it is the leading Chinese carmaker in Europe 30 countries (EU + United Kingdom + Norway + Switzerland), with 241,624 sales in 2024, far ahead of BYD (48,587 sales) and Chery (43,787 sales). This is the reason why MG announced two years ago that it was considering producing cars in Europe, and this becomes even more urgent today, with the new European additional tariffs (in addition to the existing tafiffs) applied to electric cars imported from China and in particular to MG (35.3% in addition to the 10% that existed previously).
- But while BYD is building an assembly plant in Hungary with a production capacity of 150,000 vehicles per year, and must seek new customers (around 100,000 per year) to produce that many cars, MG already has a customer base to produce 150,000 vehicles per year in Europe. It would even need two plants of 150,000 vehicles per year, given the expected growth of the European market and its own growth.
- However, in the first quarter of 2025, sales of electric MGs fell by 50% in Europe and now represent only 14% of the carmaker's sales, compared to 30% in 2024 and 47% in 2023. MG has no time to waste.
Chery has started vehicle production at its Barcelona site
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Chery has started vehicle production at its Barcelona site
- Chinese carmaker Chery has started vehicle production at the Barcelona plant, a former Ebro and then Nissan plant (until 2021). The plant had started producing electric motorcycles under the Silence brand, but the current owner of the Plant, EV Motors, looking for a new partner to produce electric vehicles, signed an agreement with Chery in April 2024 for the establishment of a joint venture allowing the production of Chery models at the Barcelona plant by EV Motors.
- The first models came out of the plant in December 2024 under the Ebro brand, known in Spain for many decades. These are the S700 and S800 SUVs, simply Chery Tiggo 7 and Tiggo 8 rebranded models. The Ebro S700 SUV is 4.52 m long and its engine is a 147 hp 1.6 petrol engine. The Ebro S800 SUV has a family resemblance to the S700 but is 4.72 m long while its engine is the same as the S700. Both models can, however, be delivered with a plug-in hybrid powertrain. These two models are starting to be sold in Spain before being sold throughout Europe. Ebro expects to sell 25,000 units of these two models by 2025.
- Another SUV has come out of the Barcelona plant under the Omoda brand (from the Chery group) which is already enjoying some success in Spain, with 7,781 sales in this country in 2024 and 1,819 units in the first two months of 2025 (a rate of 11,000 sales over one year). And this model is exported well outside of Spain since it has been sold (6,567 units in 2024 and 2,416 units in the first two months of 2025 (a rate of 14,000 sales over one year). We can therefore expect a production of 25,000 Omoda 5 in 2025 which will be added to the 25,000 Ebro S700/S800.
Chinese carmakers continue to increase on the Chinese market in 2025
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Chinese carmakers continue to increase on the Chinese market in 2025
- In the first quarter of 2025, production of passenger cars (sedans, SUVs, MPVs) in China increased by 16% compared to the first quarter of 2024, to 6.5 million units compared to 5.60 million last year. This growth marks both the good performance of the Chinese market and the increase in exports, which the CAAM (China Association of Automobile carmakers) estimates at 1.42 million units over the first three months of the year, up 7.3% compared to last year. CAAM estimates the domestic market at 5.24 million units in the first quarter of 2025, up 14.5% compared to the first quarter of 2024.
- Chinese carmakers continue to gain market share from foreign carmakers, most of which produce their cars through joint ventures with Chinese companies. The trend is obvious by obeserving the carmakers growth in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the first quarter of 2024 to see this.
- BYD, Geely, Wuling, Chery, Xpeng, Xiaomi are the carmakers that have progressed the most during this period and often with significant volumes (362,000 for BYD, 227,000 for Geely, 132,000 for Wuling, 92,000 for Chery, 72,000 for Xpeng, 72,000 for Xiaomi). There are 12 Chinese carmakers among the 14 carmakers that have progressed in 2025.
- Those that have declined the most during the same period are Honda (-85,000 units), Nissan (-52,000 units) and Tesla (-48,000 units), two Japanese carmakers and one American carmaker. There are 9 non-Chinese carmakers among the 15 carmakers that have declined in 2025 (including 4 European, 2 Japanese and 2 American). Note that the American group GM, not including Wuling (owned by SAIC at 50.1%), remained stable but at a very low level.