Stellantis’ Jeep joint venture files for bankruptcy, setting expiry in China
Months after announcing plans to terminate its Jeep joint venture in China with GAC Group, the Stellantis JV has officially filed for bankruptcy. Following the approval by GAC, Stellantis’ Jeep production overseas will cease, putting an end to a joint venture that began in 2010.
Stellantis ($STLA) is a top-ten global automotive manufacturer that is currently riding record earnings in the first half of 2022 including YOY growth of BEV sales over 50%. Very little of that success comes from Stellantis’ Jeep presence in China however. In 2010, FCA (the precursor to Stellantis) signed a joint venture with Chinese manufacturer GAC Group to produce its vehicles for their local markets overseas, including Jeeps.
Despite teaming up with GAC Group, a top-five automotive manufacturer in China, Stellantis’ Jeep joint venture has struggled in recent years. Volume fell to just over 20,000 total vehicles in 2021 – a 50% drop compared to a year prior. Anemic numbers like these inevitably led to Stellantis announcing that it was terminating its JV with GAC Group this past July, thus halting Chinese Jeep production:
Due to a lack of progress in the previously announced plan for Stellantis to take a majority share of the GAC-Stellantis joint venture, Stellantis N.V. today announced its plan to focus on distributing imported vehicles for the Jeep brand in China to leverage the potential of the brand and its iconic products through an asset-light approach.
Lack of sales is one glaring issue, but we soon learned that wasn’t the only event that led the JV to bankruptcy. This past January, Stellantis had tried to raise its stake in the joint venture from 50% to 75%, only to be thwarted by GAC.
Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares acknowledged the decreasing amount of Jeep sales in the China market as reasoning for the JV termination, but also said the decision was rooted in “broken trust” with GAC Group, simultaneously blaming Chinese policy that favors local auto brands.
GAC Group quickly fired back, calling Tavares’ comments “unbelievable,” and blamed the Jeep’s failure overseas on Stellantis’ lack of respect for Chinese customers. At that time, it was quite clear that this Jeep joint venture could not be salvaged, which has led to its official funeral following a bankruptcy filing.
GAC approves Stellantis Jeep JV bankruptcy filing
According to a statement issued by Stellantis today, its Jeep joint venture has officially filed for bankruptcy, complete with with the approval from its partner in GAC Group. Per the release:
The shareholders of the GAC-FCA Joint Venture, Guangzhou Automobile Group Co., Ltd. and Stellantis N.V., have approved a resolution authorizing the Joint Venture to file for bankruptcy, in a loss-making context. Stellantis fully impaired the value of its investment in the GAC-FCA JV and other related assets in its first half 2022 financial results. Stellantis will continue providing quality services to existing and future Jeep brand customers in China.
GAC Group says the joint venture had liabilities of almost 111% of its assets equating to 7.3 billion yuan ($1 billion). Furthermore, GAC shared in a stock exchange filing that the JV bankruptcy will not have a significant impact on its operations.
We touched upon the dwindled sales for 2021 above, but through a report by Automotive New Europe, we learned that the Chinese joint venture sold fewer than 2,000 vehicles in 2022 before the termination announcement. In May alone, it reported selling one a single vehicle.
Meanwhile, Stellantis looks to quickly move on from this failed venture and focus on the success it is finding in other global markets.
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China just laid out a plan to roll out over 100,000 ultra-fast EV charging stations by 2027 – and they’ll all be open to the public.
The National Development and Reform Commission’s (NDRC) joint notice, issued on Monday, asks local authorities to put together construction plans for highway service areas and prioritize the ones that see 40% or more usage during holiday travel rushes.
The NDRC notes that China’s ultra-fast EV charging infrastructure needs upgrading as more 800V EVs hit the road. Those high-voltage platforms can handle super-fast charging in as little as 10 to 30 minutes, but only if the charging hardware is up to speed.
China had 31.4 million EVs on the road at the end of 2024 – nearly 9% of the country’s total vehicle fleet. But charging access is still catching up. As of May 2025, there were 14.4 million charging points, or roughly 1 for every 2.2 EVs.
To keep the grid running smoothly, China wants new chargers to be smart, with dynamic pricing to incentivize off-peak charging and solar and storage to power the charging stations.
To make the business side work, the government is pushing for 10-year leases for charging station operators, and it’s backing the buildout with local government bonds.
The NDRC emphasized that the DC fast chargers built will be open to the public. This is a big deal because a lot of fast chargers in China aren’t. For example, BYD’s new megawatt chargers aren’t open to third-party vehicles.
As of September 2024, China had expanded its charging infrastructure to 11.4 million EV chargers, but only 3.3 million were public.
Read more: California now has nearly 50% more EV chargers than gas nozzles
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Tesla is starting to experience some consequences for misleading Full Self Driving customers – at least that’s the finding of one arbitration ruling that has Tesla refunding one customer $10,000 plus legal fees for failing to deliver on their promises. Find out more on today’s legally challenging episode of Quick Charge!
An arbitration “court” found that Tesla misled customers with its Full Self Driving product, and has now been forced to refund at least one person’s $10,000 payment (plus legal fees) for the not-quite autonomous driving software. France, too, is piling on claims of deceptive business practices – but there’s some good news for FSD fans! If you’re still willing to pay for it, Tesla will thrown in 0% financing on a brand new Cybertruck.
Check out the relevant links, below, to learn more.
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