GAC Fires Back Against Stellantis’ End Of Joint Venture Partnership!

Two weeks ago, Stellantis announced that it would end its partnership with the Chinese state-owned Guangzhou Automobile Group (GAC) to produce vehicles for the Chinese market. Instead, Stellantis said it would focus on distributing imported Jeep brand vehicles made up of enhanced electrified offerings.

Since then, GAC has fired back at Stellantis saying that it is “disrespecting customers” and being a trustworthy partner. The Chinese company also lashed out about comments made by Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares and the “broken trust” between the two companies.

Tavares made it known that GAC did not want to abide by the binding memorandum of understanding that the two companies had signed. Tavares went on to say that GAC “preferred to be in breach, rather than execute it.” So the automaker “took the conclusion that of course trust was broken.”

Earlier this year, Stellantis did sign a deal to raise its state in the joint venture with GAC to 75%. However, GAC “did not do what it was supposed to do,” Tavares said. “So we consider it was better to unwind”.

In a statement, GAC Group said that Stellantis “failed to achieve success, which is the result of a lack of respect for customers in the Chinese automobile market”. The statement also included that the joint venture “has not been able to establish a mutually trustworthy operating mechanism adapted to the highly competitive environment in China in order to turn the adverse situation of continuous losses in recent years.”