{"id":3009,"date":"2026-04-15T20:31:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T20:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/3009\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T20:31:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T20:31:09","slug":"stellantis-spent-years-emptying-its-italian-plants-now-it-wants-a-chinese-automaker-to-fill-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/3009\/","title":{"rendered":"Stellantis Spent Years Emptying Its Italian Plants, Now It Wants A Chinese Automaker To Fill Them"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"lead\">\n                            A deal structure reportedly being discussed would let Dongfeng build cars in Europe while Stellantis gains access to Chinese production                        <\/p>\n<p>                            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"ingallery no-lazy img-center\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/AlfaRomeoatBrusselsMotorShow1-copy-1024x576.jpg\"   alt=\" Stellantis Spent Years Emptying Its Italian Plants, Now It Wants A Chinese Automaker To Fill Them\" width=\"2500\" height=\"1406\"\/>                        <\/p>\n<p>Stellantis and Dongfeng are said to be considering a new partnership.<\/p>\n<p>This could see Dongfeng vehicles made in Europe and vice versa.<\/p>\n<p>Dongfeng could eventually takeover or invest in a European plant.<\/p>\n<p>Chinese automakers are eyeing production in Europe as a way to avoid hefty tariffs. Many European automakers have excess capacity, so it sounds like a match made in heaven. However, it could end up being a deal with the devil that comes at the expense of their own sales.<\/p>\n<p>More: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.carscoops.com\/2026\/03\/leapmotor-will-soon-start-building-evs-in-spain\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Stellantis Hands Chinese EV Maker A Factory To Bypass EU Import Tariffs<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Stellantis appears to be dealing with this conundrum as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2026-04-15\/stellantis-eyes-dongfeng-carmaking-deal-in-europe-china\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bloomberg<\/a> is reporting the company is considering a partnership with Dongfeng. Details are hazy, but sources have told the publication the Chinese firm could gain access to underutilized Stellantis plants in Europe, while Dongfeng could build Stellantis vehicles in China.<\/p>\n<p>        <a href=\"https:\/\/www.carscoops.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Carscoops-Stellantis-Dongfe.jpg\" data-type=\"inarticle-image-block\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> &#13;<br \/>\n            &#13;<br \/>\n                &#13;<br \/>\n                    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy \"   alt=\" Stellantis Spent Years Emptying Its Italian Plants, Now It Wants A Chinese Automaker To Fill Them\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Carscoops-Stellantis-Dongfe-1024x576.jpg\" data-type=\"inarticle-image\"\/>&#13;<br \/>\n                &#13;<br \/>\n            &#13;<br \/>\n        <\/a>  <\/p>\n<p>Discussions appear to be relatively advanced as Dongfeng officials reportedly visited sites in Germany and Italy. The publication also said the Chinese firm could potentially acquire or invest in \u201cone or more European plants at a later stage.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There is no indication yet which facilities could be involved, but Bloomberg pointed out that Alfa Romeo and Maserati have been struggling. Italian production has fallen and anger there <a href=\"https:\/\/www.carscoops.com\/2024\/10\/italian-autoworkers-go-on-strike-as-uaw-renews-call-to-shitcan-carlos\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">resulted in strikes in 2024<\/a>. At the time, the Associated Press said Stellantis and its predecessors had cut Italian production by nearly 70% over the past 17 years.<\/p>\n<p>        <a href=\"https:\/\/www.carscoops.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Maserati-Production-415-1.jpg\" data-type=\"inarticle-image-block\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> &#13;<br \/>\n            &#13;<br \/>\n                &#13;<br \/>\n                    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy \"   alt=\" Stellantis Spent Years Emptying Its Italian Plants, Now It Wants A Chinese Automaker To Fill Them\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Maserati-Production-415-1-1024x683.jpg\" data-type=\"inarticle-image\"\/>&#13;<br \/>\n                &#13;<br \/>\n            &#13;<br \/>\n        <\/a>  <\/p>\n<p>It remains unclear if a deal will be struck, but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.carscoops.com\/tag\/stellantis\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Stellantis<\/a> has reportedly been having discussions with a number of Chinese companies including Xpeng and Xiaomi. The automaker also has a successful relationship with Leapmotor, which could explain the optimism for additional deals.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s also worth mentioning that Dongfeng has a long relationship with PSA, which is now part of Stellantis. This partnership spawned <a href=\"https:\/\/www.carscoops.com\/2016\/09\/dongfeng-peugeot-citroen-automobile-to\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dongfeng Peugeot-Citro\u00ebn Automobile<\/a>, although the French brands are a small player in China.<\/p>\n<p>Stellantis told the publication, \u201cAs part of its normal course of business, Stellantis holds discussions with a range of industry players around the world on various topics, always with the ultimate aim of providing customers with the best mobility choices.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>        <a href=\"https:\/\/www.carscoops.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Dongfeng-415-2.jpg\" data-type=\"inarticle-image-block\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> &#13;<br \/>\n            &#13;<br \/>\n                &#13;<br \/>\n                    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy \"   alt=\" Stellantis Spent Years Emptying Its Italian Plants, Now It Wants A Chinese Automaker To Fill Them\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Dongfeng-415-2-1024x576.jpg\" data-type=\"inarticle-image\"\/>&#13;<br \/>\n                Photos Stellantis, Dongfeng&#13;<br \/>\n            &#13;<br \/>\n        <\/a>  <\/p>\n<p>                                <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"ingallery lazy img-center\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/MG-fn5568.jpg\"  data- alt=\" Stellantis Spent Years Emptying Its Italian Plants, Now It Wants A Chinese Automaker To Fill Them\" width=\"464\" height=\"463\"\/>                            <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A deal structure reportedly being discussed would let Dongfeng build cars in Europe while Stellantis gains access to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3010,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[87,2750,18,395,1790,103],"class_list":{"0":"post-3009","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-stellantis","8":"tag-china","9":"tag-dongfeng","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-production","12":"tag-reports","13":"tag-stellantis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}