21st Century Business Herald special correspondent Qian Boyan reports from Frankfurt
On February 19th local time, multiple foreign media outlets quoted insiders as saying that Stellantis Group is planning to introduce a production line for Zero Run electric vehicles at its Mirafiori factory in Turin, Italy. The production line is expected to start in 2026 or 2027, with an annual production capacity of 150000 vehicles.
On February 16th recently, Carlos Tavares, CEO of Stellantis Group, stated at the group's 2023 annual report that "if there is commercial feasibility, the group can produce Zero Run cars in Italy. This depends on our cost competitiveness and quality management, and we can seize this opportunity in a certain event.".
At present, Stellantis officials have refused to comment on the group's production of the Zero Run model in Italy, only stating that they will not make any additional remarks to Tang Weishi's statement last Friday.
In response to this matter, 21st Century Business Herald has also sought confirmation from Zero Run Automotive. As of the time of publication, Zero Run Automotive has not responded yet.
However, it is not surprising that Stellantis Group has launched a zero run model domestically in Europe.
As early as October 26 last year, when Stellantis Group and Zero Run Motors announced the establishment of a global strategic partnership, the path of overseas cooperation between the two car companies was already relatively clear.
In addition to investing 1.5 billion euros to acquire nearly 20% equity of Leapmotor and becoming the largest shareholder of Leapmotor, the key cooperation between Stellantis Group and Leapmotor is to jointly form a joint venture called Leapmotor International. Although the joint venture is known as Zero Run, it is actually controlled by Stellantis Group with a 51% stake, and its headquarters is also located in the Netherlands. The CEO of Zero Run International not only needs to be appointed by Stellantis Group, but the joint venture company also has exclusive rights to export, sell, and produce Zero Run models in global markets except for the Chinese market.
When announcing its stake in Sportless, Tang Weishi stated that Sportless models would be launched in Europe within a maximum of two years. However, Tang Weishi did not disclose at that time whether they would introduce Sportless production lines in Europe.
For Stellantis Group, which is committed to achieving the electrification goals outlined in the "Dare Forward 2030" strategic plan, bringing the production line of Zero Run into Europe is indeed a good solution to the slow electrification transformation of Stellantis Group at present.
According to sales data released by Stellantis Group last Friday, the group's global pure electric vehicle sales increased by 21% year-on-year, which is significantly weaker than the 35% year-on-year growth rate of Volkswagen Group's largest competitor in electric vehicle sales. The electric vehicle models under Stellantis Group have a 14.2% market share in the European electric vehicle market, which is also lower than the 18.5% market share of all models.
Obviously, it is difficult for Stellantis Group's current sales growth rate of electric vehicle models to achieve the goal of achieving carbon net zero emissions by 2038. Especially since the end of last year and the beginning of this year, the European electric vehicle market has been facing a cold challenge, and Stellantis Group urgently needs a new affordable electric vehicle model to boost sales.
On January 12th, Stellantis Group announced a € 5000 reduction in the price of its best-selling electric vehicle model, the Fiat 500e, in response to a price war between Tesla and German and Chinese manufacturers.
Another important reason why Stellantis Group urgently needs to introduce a zero run production line is the production agreement between the Group and the Italian government, as well as the political impact of the EU's announcement of opening anti-dumping investigations against Chinese electric vehicles.
According to the agreement between Stellantis Group and Rome, the group's annual automobile production in Italy should gradually increase from the current 750000 units to 1 million units. Therefore, the group urgently needs to introduce new models to fill the capacity gap.
On the other hand, since the French government announced in December last year that the full production cycle carbon footprint would be included in the subsidy distribution standards for electric vehicles, all Chinese brand electric vehicle models restricted by the energy structure mainly based on thermal power generation have been excluded from France's subsidy list without exception. Italy has repeatedly hinted that it will follow France's lead in introducing similar electric vehicle subsidy provisions this year. At that time, Chinese made Zero Run models will not be able to enjoy Italy's subsidy policy and will also be affected by an expected 15% EU tariff, making their sales situation destined to be pessimistic.
Setting up a zero run production line directly in Italy is undoubtedly the best choice to solve the above two problems. The Mirafiori factory in Turin, Italy, selected this time is the former headquarters of the Fiat Group, which already has production experience in electric vehicle models such as the Fiat 500e.