{"id":9833,"date":"2026-05-08T14:05:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T14:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/9833\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T14:05:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T14:05:07","slug":"chinese-ev-maker-leapmotor-taps-stellantis-spanish-plant-for-eu-production","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/9833\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese EV maker Leapmotor taps Stellantis\u2019 Spanish plant for EU production"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/business\/china-business\/article\/3348847\/leapmotor-targets-global-growth-europe-rd-hub-eyes-canada-assembly?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Leapmotor<\/a>, one of China\u2019s strongest-performing electric vehicle (EV) makers this year, has taken a major step towards building cars locally for European customers after agreeing with shareholder Stellantis to add a line at a Spanish plant previously earmarked for Opel.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The Hangzhou-based company and Stellantis, owner of Peugeot, Fiat and Jeep, would jointly build Opel\u2019s new fully electric C-sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and B10 models at the Figueruelas plant in Zaragoza, according to a statement released by the Franco-Italian carmaker on Friday. Production was expected to start as early as this year, it added.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The announcement came less than two months after Leapmotor opened its first overseas research and development hub in Munich, aimed at tailoring models to international customers.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The EV maker, 21 per cent owned by Stellantis, set up a joint venture known as Leapmotor International with the European shareholder in 2023 to promote its Chinese-made cars worldwide. The venture, 49 per cent owned by Leapmotor, leverages Stellantis\u2019 global resources to bolster sales.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cLeapmotor, after achieving rapid growth on the domestic market, has reason to quicken the pace of its overseas expansion because its tie-up with Stellantis facilitates localisation of production in markets like Europe,\u201d said Gao Shen, an independent analyst in Shanghai. \u201cStellantis also needs Chinese EV technologies to enhance its competitiveness.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The announcement comes less than two months after Leapmotor opened its first overseas research and development hub in Munich. Photo: Getty Images\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/62aaca0b-485a-420d-b142-3c918a78e1a8_64f10534.jpg\" title=\"The announcement comes less than two months after Leapmotor opened its first overseas research and development hub in Munich. Photo: Getty Images\"\/>The announcement comes less than two months after Leapmotor opened its first overseas research and development hub in Munich. Photo: Getty Images<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Stellantis said new Opel-branded electric SUVs built at the plant would become more affordable through its partnership with Leapmotor as the two companies joined efforts to improve supply chain efficiency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leapmotor, one of China\u2019s strongest-performing electric vehicle (EV) makers this year, has taken a major step towards building&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9834,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[168,8181,8182,8180,103,400,2804,7],"class_list":{"0":"post-9833","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-stellantis","8":"tag-leapmotor","9":"tag-local-production","10":"tag-overcapacity","11":"tag-spanish-plant","12":"tag-stellantis","13":"tag-supply-chain","14":"tag-tariffs","15":"tag-tesla"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9833","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=9833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9833\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}