Jeep carone of the pioneers in auto manufacturing in China, will soon bid for its manufacturing plants in China.
Overnight Stellantis, the parent company of Jeep, Fiat, Peugeot and many other brands, has announced it will end its joint venture with GAC in China.
The move to close the GAC FCA will cost the French-Italian-American carmaker at least 297 million euros ($441 million).
Last night’s announcement was due to a “lack of progress” in discussions for Stellantis to buy a majority stake in the GAC FCA operation. Stellantis said the joint venture GAC FCA “has been losing money in recent years”.
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Jeep Grand Commander
GAC FCA currently has two factories, one in Trường Sa and the other in Guangzhou, and is currently manufacturing Jeep Renegade, Compass and Cherokee.
It also makes General leadera three-row crossover based on the Cherokee, designed and manufactured exclusively in China.
Following the cessation of production at GAC FCA, Jeep will transition to an “asset-based approach” and become an import-only brand.
According to Jeep, will focus on electric vehicles. Perhaps this gives the brand some rationale for the significantly higher prices they will need to charge for the entry-level models, as they will now be subject to high import duties.
Today’s news marks an unfortunate milestone in Jeep’s history in China.
In the early to mid-80s, the brand formed a joint venture Beijing Jeep with Beijing Automobile Works (BAW), allowing them to manufacture cars in a country that was gradually opening up to the world and starting to take control of the market. take capitalism.
Since 1985, Beijing Jeep began to produce the recently redesigned Cherokee.
Like Volkswagen with partner SAIC, Jeep was one of the first foreign automakers in China, and these early entrants have enjoyed much success with the middle class and new entrepreneurs. floating.
During this time, Beijing Jeep added a number of locally developed models. The growing list includes vehicles from Mercedes-Benz, Chrysler and Mitsubishi following the 1998 “equal merger” between Daimler and Chrysler.
After Daimler gave up Chrysler to the private equity firm Cerberus in 2007, the German automaker kept the Beijing Jeep – since renamed Beijing Benz – to itself. China’s production of Jeep, Chrysler and Mitsubishi models was largely shut down around this time.
Due in part to the global financial crisis of the late 2000s, Chrysler filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and was gradually taken over by Fiat.
Realizing the need to strengthen its presence in China, Fiat partnered with GAC in 2010. GAC Fiat started production of the Fiat Viaggio, a modified Dodge Dart in 2012.
It was not until 2016 that the domestic production of Jeeps started again. Now just six years later, Jeep is back to import-only status.
Stellantis continues to run joint venture operations for the Peugeot and Citroen brands with Dongfeng. It is very likely that in the not too distant future, Jeep can return to production in China through this partnership.
