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Carmaker Stellantis may stop producing cars in China altogether. Carlos Tavares, CEO of Stellantis, said Stellantis was considering a "asset-light" approach to brands such as Peugeot and Citroen in the Chinese market, according to Interface News and other media reports. Many media cars have also made preliminary reports on the news under the title of manufacturer Stellantis or a total suspension of car production in China. Stellantis China "does not comment" on future factory shutdowns in China, and this evening, the official account of the Stellantis Group did not respond to this rumor.

Tang Weishi told the media at the Paris Motor Show that "if we advance the strategy we are adopting, then we do not need to set up a factory in China", adding that Stellantis can export cars made in European and American factories to the Chinese market, like Jeep and Alfa Romeo.

In response to the report that Tang Weishi, CEO of the Stellantis Group, "does not need to set up a factory in China", the Stellantis official responded to the media by saying: no comment.

With the defeat of GAC Feike in China, Stellantis Group has only one joint venture brand DPCA in China. It should be noted that earlier this year, Tang Weishi used the same language to describe Stellantis's decision to suspend production of Jeep in China, in accordance with Jeep's approach, or did not rule out the possibility that Peugeot and Citroen also face the possibility of withdrawing from the Chinese market.

On July 18 this year, due to the lack of progress in the plan for a majority stake in Guangzhou Auto Fick, a joint venture between Stellantis and GAC GROUP, Stellantis Group announced that Stellantis would adopt a "light asset" approach to develop the Jeep brand in China, and negotiated with GAC GROUP to terminate the local joint venture. After that, Stellantis Group will focus on distributing Jeep-branded imported cars in China. On the same day, GAC GROUP responded: "Guangzhou Auto Fick has been losing money in recent years and has been unable to resume normal production and operation since February this year. GAC GROUP and Stellantis are negotiating to terminate the joint venture in an orderly manner, and will properly handle matters related to the joint venture in accordance with the law and regulations. This also means that GAC Fick is infinitely close to delisting, and once GAC Fick delisting is finalized, there will be no Jeep domestic cars in the Chinese market, and then the new Jeep will be introduced in the way of import.

Stellantis was founded on January 16, 2021 by Peugeot Citroen (PSA) and Fiat Chrysler (FCA), each with a stake of 50:50, according to public information. Stellantis Group owns many brands such as Fiat, Maserati, Jeep, Dodge, Ram, Peugeot, Citroen, Opel and DS. At that time, the new group became the fourth largest automobile group in the world after Volkswagen, Toyota and Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi, but Stellantis Group did not develop smoothly in the Chinese market.

In the Chinese market, Stellantis Group once had two joint ventures, DPCA and GAC Fick. Among them, Guangzhou Auto Fick has lost to China. At present, Stellantis Group has only a joint venture in the domestic market.

Shenlong Automobile Co., Ltd. was established on May 18, 1992, jointly funded by Dongfeng Motor and Peugeot Citroen Group. In March this year, there were media reports that Stellantis Group would adjust its business in China, and the long-rumored "two rooms and one hall" plan of DPCA was confirmed, in which "two rooms" means that Dongfeng Peugeot will be dominated by France, Dongfeng Citroen will be dominated by China, and "one room" refers to the sharing of existing public areas such as commodity planning, technology, quality, industrial production and so on. Subsequently, Dongfeng Motor Group issued an announcement saying that "the Group is negotiating with Stellantis Group on a new business arrangement of DPCA, but there is no legal binding agreement on the new business arrangement at present." However, the Stellantis Group did not mention the details of DPCA at the time. But it was not long before it was revealed that DPCA had suspended the "two rooms and one hall" plan, taking into account this year's uncertainties as well as the economic situation, industry competition and other factors. Both Chinese and French shareholders hope to work together to do a good job in sales and word-of-mouth before talking about the "two rooms and one hall" plan. On May 7, DPCA insiders said that the two shareholders are still communicating about the company's strategy, while Stellantis said it would not comment on the matter.

At present, the Chinese market has become the leader of the global electric vehicle market, under this background, more and more car companies begin to increase the size of the Chinese market, while the Citroen, Peugeot and DS brands operated by Stellantis Group in China have not become the mainstream. As for Stellantis Group's termination of Jeep's domestic plan, the auto industry is concerned that it may be mainly related to the poor performance of Guangzhou Auto Fick in the Chinese market. According to the official website, the Jeep brand of Guangzhou Auto Fick includes three domestic models: big Commander, Compass and Free Light, of which the Compass is the backbone of the Jeep brand, with sales of 8991 vehicles in 2021. The model is produced by the Guangzhou factory and 6791 by the Grand Commander, and the model is produced by the Changsha factory. According to the data, GAC Fick sales rose 260% year-on-year to 179900 vehicles in 2016, a record high, but sales have fallen year after year. From 2018 to 2021, GAC Fick sales were 125200, 73900, 40500 and 20100, respectively. Sales declined for four consecutive years and became GAC GROUP's biggest decline. After entering 2022, Jeep almost stopped, production and sales in March and May were both 1 car, and production and sales in April and June were directly linked to "-".

The sales performance of DPCA, a joint venture of the Stellantis Group in China, is also very mediocre. On October 17, DPCA announced its cumulative sales in 2022. As of October 16, DPCA sold 100600 vehicles, accounting for 59.1% of the annual sales of 170000 vehicles in 2022, of which September sales rose 73% year on year to 14037 vehicles, a monthly high in 2022.

According to DPCA's official website, DPCA has two major brands: Dongfeng Peugeot and Dongfeng Citroen, among which Dongfeng Peugeot products include Peugeot 408, Peugeot 508L, Peugeot 2008, Peugeot E2008, Peugeot 4008, Peugeot 5008 and so on; Dongfeng Citroen's products include Tianyi C5 AIRCROSS, new C3-XR, Versailles C5X, C6 and other models. Judging from the products of the two major brands of DPCA, although the two brands have a large number of products, there are not many models with good sales. Take the sales in September this year as an example, Dongfeng Peugeot sold 2147 Peugeot 408s, Peugeot 4008 1008 vehicles, and only a few hundred other models, even Peugeot 4008 PHEV only 8 vehicles. Dongfeng Citroen's Versailles C5X sold 5809 cars, Tianyi C5 AIRCROSS 593, and the rest less than 200. there was also only one Tianyi C5 AIRCROSSPHEV.

On the whole, after entering 2022, the sales of DPCA have improved, but when it comes to brand models, DPCA actually has only one popular model, Versailles C5X. According to statistics, from January to September in 2022, the cumulative sales of Versailles C5X is 33773. In short, most of the sales of Versailles C5X come from Versailles C5X, but it is difficult for DPCA to achieve the goal of annual sales of 170000 vehicles by relying solely on a popular model of Versailles C5X. At the same time, in the highly competitive car market, it is not easy for DPCA to return to the main track.

In addition to the two brands, a spokesman for Opel, the German carmaker owned by Stellantis, confirmed on Sept. 17 that the company had suspended its expansion plans in the Chinese market. "considering the quantity needed to achieve practical results, Opel has temporarily shelved its plans to enter the Chinese market," the spokesman said. Opel said the decision was in line with Stellantis's "light asset" strategy in China.

As for the performance of the Chinese market, Tang Weishi said bluntly: "We are very disappointed with the Chinese market." Agence France-Presse pointed out in the latest report that rival Volkswagen's annual sales of more than 3 million vehicles in China make it difficult for Stellantis to reach, while Bloomberg said that as local car companies such as BYD and Geely launch a series of electric models, some established foreign car brands are becoming more and more under pressure to maintain their share and position in the Chinese market. The auto industry is concerned that the future development of Stellantis Group in the Chinese market may become more difficult with the imminent reform of Guangzhou Auto Fick and DPCA.

On July 29th, Stellantis Group released its first-half results. According to the report, the Stellantis Group (which marks Citroen and Fiat Chrysler) fell 16.0% to 3.019 million vehicles in the first half of this year compared with the same period last year. The data show that Stellantis Group's net revenue in the first half of the year was 88 billion euros, up 17% from the same period last year; adjusted operating profit was 12.4 billion euros, up 44% from the same period last year; adjusted operating profit margin was 14.1%; net profit was 8 billion euros, up 34% from the same period last year. For the Stellantis Group, Carlos Tavares expressed great satisfaction: "in the severe global market environment, we continue to promote the 'Dare Forward 2030' strategic plan, achieve excellent performance and implement the group's grand electrification strategy."

According to the previous plan, in terms of product layout, Stellantis expects that by the end of 2030, all the cars sold by the group in Europe will be pure electric models, accounting for 50% of the cars sold in the United States. by 2030, the group plans to launch more than 75 pure electric models, with annual sales of 5 million pure electric vehicles worldwide.

Photo Peugeot brand booth

In addition, today, Stellantis also announced that three new electric models, Peugeot Emur308, Emur308 station wagon and Peugeot EMur408, will be produced at the factory in Mulhouse, France. Stellantis officials also said that the current Peugeot Emur208 is the best-selling all-electric model in France, and Peugeot announced that it will release the "Peugeot INCEPTION" concept car in the next few weeks. At the same time, the Stellantis Group plans to launch 28 new pure electric models by the end of 2024, of which five vehicle factories in France will produce 12 pure electric vehicles with a total annual production capacity of 1 million vehicles.

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