Lots of talk about JVs here. Well, after BYD, Stellantis-Leap are going to produce cars in the EU. Admittedly this is an existing factory, but still interesting.
So far, Chinese EVs have performed pretty underwhelming in Europe. NIO just left Denmark recently after flopping badly. BYD cars are overpriced for so-so quality. The only Chinese-owned brands that have done well have many decades of name recognition (Volvo and MG). It seems clear that the Chinese OEMs need factories on the ground to make a serious dent.
To be clear, the Stellantis-Leap JV is mostly in the hands of Stellantis. But for smaller players like Leap, I don't see any other option. I wonder if we will see the VW-Xpeng partnership move in a similar direction, with Xpeng models potentially being produced in VW factories. I don't see Xpeng having the capital to invest abroad and tariffs are likely to rise going forward.
