Stellantis is expanding its cooperation with Chinese manufacturer Leapmotor. The concern's plant in Zaragoza, Spain, will produce four models on a single platform: Leapmotor B10, Peugeot 3008, Opel Grandland, and a new Opel C-segment electric crossover. All of them will use a unified architecture created jointly with Leapmotor.

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The partnership between the companies has gone far beyond distribution. After Stellantis acquired about 20% of Leapmotor's shares for 1.5 billion euros in 2023, the cooperation moved to joint technology development and production organization. Now, the Chinese company is involved not only in platform creation but also in the development of the electrical architecture of future models.

An important part of the project will be the construction of a 4.1 billion euro battery gigafactory next to the plant in Zaragoza. The 50 GWh enterprise is being created jointly with Chinese CATL and is expected to start battery production by the end of 2026. In the future, Stellantis and Leapmotor are also considering the possibility of transferring the production of new Leapmotor models to the plant in Madrid.

The use of a common platform for several brands has long been the norm in the global automotive industry. However, in this case, the key difference lies in the origin of the technologies. While previously the basis of Peugeot, Opel, and Vauxhall cars was developed by European engineering divisions, now a significant part of the platform and related solutions are created by Chinese specialists.

It is expected that the use of a Chinese platform will help reduce the cost of future cars. At the same time, buyers will choose models from different European brands that will be technically much closer to each other than before. The differences will increasingly come down to design, settings, equipment, and service network, rather than the car's construction itself.

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