Leapmotor and Stellantis, whose brands include Citroën, Fiat, Peugeot and Vauxhall, will look to further “leverage the synergies” of their partnership – which could include the development of new shared vehicle platforms.

Stellantis holds a stake of around 20% in the Chinese firm, along with a 51% stake in Leapmotor International, which distributes its models in global markets, including the UK.

While that means Leapmotor cars are sold in the UK through Stellantis’s dealer network, those are technically unrelated to cars from their sibling brands. 

There is already technical cooperation between the firms, as European engineers help Leapmotor with the development of models for international markets. 

And that cooperation could increase in the future, according to Leapmotor International boss Tianshu Xin. Speaking at the Beijing motor show, he said: “One of the beauties of this partnership is really to leverage the best of both sides. So Leapmotor is providing a very innovative product at a completive cost while Stellantis is providing global infrastructure with the dealer network, IT systems, parts distribution and more.

“Leapmotor and Stellantis are two independent OEMs and have their own platforms. But one of the strategic rationale of this partnership is to generate synergies – potentially including the platform operation and components. Around 65% of Leapmotor’s components are produced in-house, and there are synergies for Stellantis to use Leapmotor parts in future Stellantis platforms.”

Asked if that could extend to the development of a platform that could underpin both Leapmotor and Stellantis models, potentially allowing for Stellantis models to be produced at lower cost in Leapmotor plants, Xin said: “I will not rule it out completely at this moment, and this great idea is certainly under exploration.”