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.