Are Renault and Stellantis vulgar subcontractors for Chinese companies?

In order to monetize their industrial facilities in Europe, the groups Renault and Stellantis are positioning themselves to produce Chinese cars.

The opportunist is not just a song by Jacques Dutronc. The somewhat similar strategy of the groups Renault and Stellantis, aimed at making their oversized industrial capacity in Europe relevant, raises questions.

Basically, it amounts to becoming mere subcontractors for the Chinese giants eager to devour the Old Continent. It’s reminiscent of the textile industry, with French or Italian factories assembling Chinese vehicles.

Geely and Leapmotor approaching?

Europe is closing its doors to Chinese car imports. Therefore, they will need to be produced directly within the continent—and very quickly. BYD has already announced plans to build a brand-new factory in Hungary, but the timelines are too long. It will take several years before BYD can deliver its first European car.

The risky and opportunistic idea of Renault is to collaborate with Geely (Smart, Volvo, Zeekr, Lotus, etc.). As for Stellantis (Fiat, Peugeot, Citroën, etc.), it is to establish an industrial partnership with Leapmotor.

This second choice is more surprising because this company is not making significant progress in China… Stellantis and its CEO Carlos Tavares are already laying the groundwork for this reality by reiterating that Italian factories have a future. Implicitly, this suggests that there will be a change in the industrial model.

But beyond these alliances, the question remains: are European manufacturers playing a deadly game by opening wide the doors to their Chinese rivals, who will surely weaken them? Are they not playing a game that could be fatal in the medium term? Unless they believe the war is already lost…

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