Stellantis has announced its second European manufacturing joint venture with a China-based automaker that will see one of its French plants build a premium electric vehicle for the Dongfeng Group.
Stellantis will take a 51% majority stake in the new JV with Dongfeng, as it had previously done with Leapmotor International, the automaker announced in a May 20 release.
Earlier this month, Stellantis agreed to a deal to build a Leapmotor-branded EV at its Zaragoza plant in Spain.
This second agreement will see an EV from Dongfeng’s premium brand, Voyah, built at the Stellantis plant in Rennes, France, currently manufacturing Citroën vehicles.
By localizing manufacturing, Stellantis’ JV partners will benefit from the European Union’s “Made-in-Europe” requirement to escape import duties, its statement pointed out.
The deal will use Stellantis’ dealership network and after-sales facilities while deploying Dongfeng’s EV ecosystem and benefiting from economies of scale.
It comes hard-on-the-heels of the companies’ agreeing to a combined €1 billion ($1.16 billion) deal to produce Jeep and Peugeot brand vehicles under the Dongfeng Peugeot Citroën Automobile Co. joint venture at its Wuhan, China plant. Stellantis is expected to contribute approximately €130 million of that amount.
No details of which Voyah brand vehicle will be the first model out of the French plant, but it could be one of the automaker’s global products such as the Voyah Free SUV. The midsize luxury EV claims a 0-to-62 mph sprint time of 4.4 seconds, top speed of 124 mph and a range of more than 310 miles.
“With this new chapter in our collaboration, we will give our customers an even greater choice of competitive products and pricing, leveraging the best of Stellantis’ global footprint alongside Dongfeng’s access to China’s advanced new energy vehicles ecosystem,” said Antonio Filosa, Stellantis CEO.
The move builds on a 34-year partnership between the automakers predating the merging of France’s PSA Group with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles to create Stellantis in 2021.
An agreement on shared production of Peugeot and Jeep vehicles in China for both domestic and export sales was followed by a non-binding memorandum of understanding signed by the two companies to share production scale, expertise and research and development capabilities, the pair’s May 15 statement said.
Initially, this will see two Jeep-branded off-road new energy vehicles (aka electric vehicles) for global markets starting in 2027.
At the same time, two new Peugeot-branded new energy vehicles will be produced based on the latest design language of the brand’s concept cars unveiled at the 2026 Beijing Auto Show.
The project’s investment plans will see Stellantis contribute about a third of the monies, with the other two-thirds coming from Dongfeng and “favorable automotive industrial policies” of the Hubei province and the Wuhan municipality, the joint statement said.
“With a track record of more than 30 years of collaboration and shared automotive expertise, Stellantis and Dongfeng are ready to further leverage their strengths and introduce all-new vehicles with cutting-edge EV technologies from brands that customers worldwide trust and love,” said Filosa. “We look forward to this project and to collaborate even more in the future,” he added.
