The list of names of the possible second largest car manufacturer ready to land in our country is getting longer. And this time the hypothesis seems concrete. Qian Xie, capo del business europeo di Donfeng in fact he spoke explicitly about “initial negotiations with the Meloni executive to produce cars in Italy”. “Negotiations are still ongoing – he explained to the Bloomberg agency – and the government has undertaken to present in the next weeks a range of hypotheses across various sites where to set up a production plant”.
Better hybrids given the flop of BEVs
The manager then pointed out a strategic aspect which shows how many Chinese, though winning overwhelmingly in electricthey are pay attention to the market dynamics that sees the flop of sales of totally electric cars. “Dongfeng strongly believes in an electric future – she said – but in Europe it will have to focus on hybrid cars“. , Xie then explained that he is thinking of an establishment with a capacity of over 100 thousand vehicles per year. Xie’s statements follow the recent signing of an agreement with the DR to start an industrial partnership to relaunch the English brand Tiger thanks to three new models designed by the Molise company and produced by Dongfeng in China. Dongfeng has recently launched its premium brand on the Italian market Voyage. But the Chinese company also supplies cars to another Italian company, La Cirelli.
Link with Stellantis: advantage or disadvantage?
“Italy is one of the largest automotive markets in Europe and for a Chinese company, having local production means being able to supply all the other countries in the area“Xie added. -In Italy it is possible to take advantage of the strong heritage that the country has in the automotive sector.” Dongfeng would then also have an additional feature, being already partner of Fiat in China and minority shareholder of Stellantis. However, it is necessary to understand whether this can constitute an advantage or a disadvantage. On the one hand, in fact, it would allow the executive to open up to a second producer without ending up in war with the Franco-Italian group. On the other hand, however, it would give the opportunity to CEO of Stellants Carlos Tavares, which sees the arrival of a second manufacturer in Italy as smoke and mirrors, to slow down the negotiations between the government and the “friendly” Chinese company.
Chery formalizes the agreement in Spain
Cheery, another company that was on the list to land in Italy has instead the agreement to produce vehicles in Barcelona has been made official. The agreement was announced by the Minister of Business and Labor of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Roger Torrent. The agreement puts an end to several months of negotiations with Ev Motors of the Catalan Ebro group, which a few weeks ago assumed full responsibility for the relaunch project and reindustrialization of the factory closed by Nissan in 2021. For now, it is known that the two companies will create a joint venture whose majority will be in the hands of the Catalans: the new company will produce velectric vehicles for the Omoda and Ebro brands. The Chery could assemble up to 50 thousand cars a year and employ directly 300 of 1,600 former Nissan employees.