New car-making forces "hand in hand" with multinational giants Chinese car companies have entered the era of technology export

Reporter Fang Chao and Quartz Jing report from Shanghai

"After signing the relevant agreement in October 2023, we have completed all the closing work very efficiently in just seven months."

On May 14, at the press conference on the establishment of the Leapmotor International joint venture and the global strategy of Leapmotor International, Carlos Tavares, the global CEO of Stellantis Group, emphasized to the media, including the reporter of China Business Daily: "The mission of the Leapmotor International joint venture is to sell cars in overseas markets outside of China, which is the ultimate goal of our joint venture. ”

Since 2023, the cooperation between Volkswagen and Xpeng Motors, SAIC and Audi has attracted widespread attention in the market, and Yin Tongyue, chairman of Chery Automobile, also revealed in April this year: "There is a high probability that two European luxury brands want to use our platform." ”

"In the future, SAIC's lower body platform, plug-in hybrid system, intelligent driving and intelligent cabin and other technologies will be 'reverse output' of foreign cooperation, and there will be some foreign brands for external suppliers." Lu Yong, deputy general manager of SAIC Passenger Car Company, executive vice president of SAIC Innovation Research and Development Institute and executive deputy director of the technology center, also said the same recently.

"There will be more and more cases of 'reverse export' of Chinese car companies in the future." Zhang Xiang, director of the Vodaf Digital Vehicle International Cooperation Research Center, told reporters that in the era of fuel vehicles, Chinese car companies have adopted "market for technology" due to technical limitations, but after overtaking in the field of new energy vehicles, the gap between foreign car companies and Chinese car companies is obvious, and there will be more and more phenomena of taking a stake in Chinese car companies to master the technology platform and carry out related cooperation.

零跑"牵手"Stellantis加速落地

On October 26, 2023, Leapmotor and Stellantis jointly announced that Stellantis plans to invest about 1.5 billion euros to acquire about 20% of the equity of Leapmotor, and the transaction also confirmed that Stellantis and Leapmotor will establish a joint venture called "Leapmotor International" with a ratio of 51%:49%.

It is also understood that in addition to the Greater China region, the joint venture company Leapmotor International will have the exclusive right to export and sell to other markets around the world, as well as the exclusive right to manufacture Leapmotor products locally.

Just 7 months later, Leapmotor International, a joint venture between Leapmotor and Stellantis, ushered in the moment of landing.

"After 200 days of cooperation, I feel that Stellantis is similar to a private enterprise in China, and the work attitude, time, efficiency and decision-making are indeed very fast." Zhu Jiangming, founder, chairman and CEO of Leapmotor Technology, said at the press conference. Carlos Tavares stresses that "Stellantis is a big company, but we can go fast" and "we are all runners, we are all running companies".

The reporter noted that Leaprun International is headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and Xin Tianshu from the Stellantis China management team serves as the CEO of Leaprun International. Zhu Jiangming revealed that before the establishment of Leapmotor International, "a lot of work has been done, including the work of attracting investment, including the work of giving many dealers and investors test drives." ”

When announcing the official establishment of the company, Leapmotor International also revealed the "roadmap" of its layout in the global market.

"How can we go further in the European market? Europe is open to many Chinese car companies, and we plan to introduce Leapmotor models in 9 European countries. Carlos Tavares revealed.

The reporter learned from Leapmotor that with the help of Stellantis Group's global distribution channels, Leapmotor International plans to launch Leapmotor in 9 European markets including France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Greece and Romania from September this year.

Both parties "take what they need"

Carlos Tavares also admits: "We have multiple benefits in this partnership, first of all, it will help us to further accelerate our time to market and be able to offer more cost-effective electric vehicles, and economics will be the primary issue we face as we expand our electric vehicles globally. ”

"By partnering with Leapmotor, we will be able to launch more competitive electric vehicles in the market more quickly, which will not only increase our profits, but also increase the profits of Stellantis and Leapmotor, and we will also be able to respond more efficiently to the global warming problem that everyone is working together, which is the first advantage of our accelerated cooperation." Carlos Tavares emphasized.

The reporter noted that at the press conference, in addition to mentioning that Leapmotor will help Stellantis provide more competitive electric vehicles, Carlos Tavares also said that the cooperation with Leapmotor also brings benefits such as "being able to launch the most first-class technology" and "further promoting the asset-light strategy".

Taking advantage of Stellantis' channel advantages in the global market to reduce the uncertainty of developing overseas markets alone is undoubtedly one of the important considerations for Leapmotor and Stellantis.

"The uncertainty of overseas regions in the future determines that the global development of China's new energy vehicle brands will face difficulties in the future." Zhu Jiangming emphasized that relying on Stellantis, coupled with Leaprun's technical barriers and product accumulation, "Leaprun's products will definitely surpass some domestic car companies or some foreign car companies in terms of the speed of entering the world and the number of global sales, and '1+1' will definitely be greater than 2."

"With the endorsement of Stellantis, users can use the products of a new car manufacturer like Leapmotor with confidence. And we can leverage their global manufacturing resources to quickly localize manufacturing and solve other issues, including tariffs. In Zhu Jiangming's view, this is an advantage that other car companies cannot have for the time being.

Chinese automakers are accelerating the export of technology

In May 1983, BAIC Group signed a contract with Chrysler Corporation, making Beijing Jeep Automobile Co., Ltd. the first Sino-foreign joint venture in China's automotive industry. Soon after, SAIC Motor and Volkswagen AG established a joint venture between SAIC and Volkswagen, and since then, the curtain has been on the joint venture in China's auto industry.

With their advantages in key areas of new energy vehicles such as "three electrics" and intelligent cockpits, Chinese automakers not only have obvious advantages in the domestic new energy vehicle market, but also continue to expand in overseas markets. In 2023, China exported 1.203 million new energy vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 77.6%, helping China become the world's largest auto exporter for the first time.

In this case, the cooperation between Volkswagen and Xpeng Motors, SAIC and Audi has become a landmark case of "reverse export" of Chinese car companies.

In July 2023, Xpeng Motors and Volkswagen entered into a long-term strategic partnership, in which Volkswagen acquired approximately 4.99% of the equity of Xpeng Motors, and the two parties will jointly develop two B-segment electric vehicle models based on their respective core competencies and Xpeng's G9 model platform, intelligent cockpit and advanced driver assistance system software.

Coincidentally, also in July 2023, SAIC Motor announced that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Audi, in which SAIC will make full use of its own technological advantages to jointly develop products with Audi, open a new chapter of joint venture cooperation, and create a new model of mutual benefit and win-win.

"The cooperation model between Volkswagen and Xpeng Motors, SAIC and Audi is different from the cooperation model between Leapmotor and Stellantis," Zhang Xiang analyzed, "Leapmotor handed over the overseas marketing power to Stellantis, and the cars are mainly sold to overseas markets, while the cars cooperated by Volkswagen and Xpeng Motors, SAIC and Audi are mainly sold in the domestic market, and the target markets for the two models are different." ”

At the same time, the phenomenon of "reverse export" of Chinese automakers is also widespread in joint ventures, and international auto giants are handing over product development rights to local Chinese teams for the first time in history.

"One of the biggest topics of our board of directors this time is to agree that all hybrid models will be handed over to SAIC Volkswagen, and SAIC Volkswagen will be used as a platform to work with Volkswagen and SAIC to jointly develop hybrid models that meet the needs of the Chinese market, including PHEVs and range extender products." During the 2024 Beijing International Auto Show, Jia Jianxu, general manager of SAIC Volkswagen, revealed the information to the public.

Honda is the same, on April 16, Honda China officially released its new energy sub-brand based in China "Ye", public information shows, "Ye" brand by Honda China's young R&D team independent design, Honda Motor Technology (China) Co., Ltd. General Manager Igarashi Masayuki recently said, "Now China's automotive industry, including suppliers, is indeed at the forefront, autonomous driving and intelligent technology is relatively strong."

"Joint venture brands have entered the era of joint venture model 2.0, and consumers' perception of independent brands and new energy products is changing," Minmetals Securities Research Report believes that overseas auto companies have cooperated with Chinese car companies in reverse to launch smart electric vehicles using the technology of China's own brands, breaking consumers' original perception of joint venture brands and independent brands.

"At present, Chinese car companies are in a leading position in electrification and intelligence, and have realized the transformation from 'bringing in' to 'going out'." Yan Jinghui, a member of the expert committee of the China Automobile Dealers Association, stressed to reporters that overseas car companies have been slow in China's new energy vehicle market for several beats, and Chinese car companies have lost their market share in terms of market share, Yan Jinghui believes that "China is one of the most important automobile markets in the world, and foreign car companies must make a difference in intelligence and electrification if they want to compete for market share."