Tag Archives: Volkswagen Group

News

Stellantis invests €1.5 billion in a Chinese company

Following Volkswagen’s $700 million deal with Chinese company Xpeng, Stellantis formed a joint venture with Leapmotor. The world’s largest conglomerate will have a 51 percent stake and will have the rights to export, sell and manufacture Leapmotor electric vehicles outside of China.

At a press conference in the Chinese city of Hangzhou, Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares said: “We have not been so successful in China, so we prefer to rely on a Chinese partner. To win in China, it is better to win with a Chinese company.” This is a good strategic move by Stellantis, with which the group resets its strategy focused on electric vehicles after years of bad sales in China.

Stellantis intends to invest €1.5 billion to acquire approximately 20% of Leapmotor. This will be a good financial injection for the Chinese company to improve its sales results in the domestic market but also to expand its business outside of China. Shares of Leapmotor have risen about 22 percent in Hong Kong this year, and the company now has a market value of $5.4 billion. “Today it is a great milestone in Leapmotor’s history, and I am thrilled to witness this moment together with Mr. Tavares and his team. We believe in win-win partnerships formed by strong players in the fast-evolving environment. Working with Stellantis, we will continue to be innovative and creative in technology and business synergies and will bring Leapmotor EV cars to the global market,” said Leapmotor Founder Zhu Jiangming.

China is definitely the biggest electric car market in the world. However, large companies that have a well-developed global network, such as Tesla, raise the prices of electric cars, which threatens the business of smaller manufacturers. Leapmotor is one of them, and this cooperation will enable not only the survival of the company but also growth on a global level.

Source: Stellantis

News

SEAT will not develop new cars

For a long time there were rumors that the Volkswagen Group, as the owner of SEAT, could shut down the Spanish brand. However, the information was partially correct, as it was confirmed that SEAT has a new task, but that it will not develop new cars. From now on, it will be done by the Cupra.

“The future of SEAT is the Cupra. The Volkswagen Group will continue to invest heavily in the Cupra and increase these investments,” said Volkswagen CEO Thomas Schäfer. He also said that Cupra has become extremely attractive to customers and that it is the fastest growing brand in Europe.

Spanish car manufacturer was founded in 1950 and represents the pride of Spain. It will keep the name and the main task of the company in the future will be alternative mobility. Given that SEAT already has the MÓ range of electric scooters, this task seems ideal.

SEAT has been struggling with sales results for a long time, so the company decided that it is time to take a different path. When it comes to current production, SEAT will continue to produce cars for the next few years, but will not produce new generations of those models.

In 2018, SEAT created the Cupra brand as its independent high-performance branch. Since then, the company has been producing originally designed, exciting and attractive cars that have been well received by the market. In the first six months of 2023, Cupra sold 107,300 cars, 56.9% more than in the same period of 2022 (68,400). These are historic results and an indication that the decision to shift focus to Cupra was expected.

Source: Volkswagen Group