Stellantis has begun producing Chinese Leapmotor-branded electric cars in Europe. But it is doing so at Fiat's historic Tychy plant in Poland and not, as labor organizations had hoped, at the Turin plant in Mirafiori. This was reported by the management of the Chinese automaker with which Carlos Tavares' group has had an agreement since last year, when it bought a 21% stake for more than 1.5 billion euros with the aim of riding the announced invasion of Chinese battery-powered vehicles in Europe instead of merely suffering it. On a call, Leapmotor said the first models of its T03 small electric car have already rolled out of the Stellantis assembly plant in Poland last week and mass production is scheduled to start in September. Making the models is the joint venture Leapmotor International, in which Stellantis secured a 51% stake when it signed agreements with the Chinese group. Rumors in recent months, never officially confirmed by Stellantis, had pointed to the Polish plant in Tychy as the first production base in Europe for Leapmotor's cars, ahead of the possibility that that production mission would be assigned to the Italian plant in Mirafiori. The choice can be explained by a simple reason: big savings from a cost perspective. Leapmotor's management explained that production costs at the Polish plant in Tychy amount to about 400-500 euros per car produced, while in Mirafiori the costs would be about 1,000 euros, or twice as much.
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