While Repubblica, fresh from the sale by Exor – the financial company of the Agnelli-Elkann family – to the antenna of the Greek Kyriakou family, speculates that its former publisher, John Elkann, could address the serious issues affecting the Italian factory in Cassino with Leapmotor’s Chinese cars (it remains to be seen if China will remove our country from the blacklist, since Rome in the EU had voted for tariffs on its electric cars; for the same reason, it seems Beijing imposed that production be moved from Poland to Spain), Reuters goes further imagining the production of electric cars for the Opel and Alfa Romeo brands to be made in Figueruelas, the Spanish plant that will become the headquarters of the Chinese company’s European operations.
LEAPMOTOR ELECTRIFIES OPEL AND ALFA?
In truth, a possible collaboration between Leapmotor and Stellantis to electrify Opel’s lineup has been talked about for a few weeks. The novelty concerns instead the Biscione whose EV versions of several flagship models (namely the new Alfa Romeo Stelvio and Giulia Quadrifoglio) were supposed to arrive precisely at Cassino, and with the delay of the Italian-French Group’s electric plans decided by Antonio Filosa, a well-known production gap was created that ended up worsening an already very serious situation.
The umpteenth blow, in short, for the Piedimonte San Germano factory which, if other recent rumors prove true (namely the production of the Alfa Romeo Junior in Algeria) in the assignments of the historic sports brand’s models would now see itself overtaken even by Figueruelas. Unless, by combining both rumors, Repubblica is really right and Leapmotor ends up in Cassino (home of Giulia, Giulietta, Stelvio…) to produce the electric cars of the stable once “made in Portello,” a district of Milan.
WHAT REUTERS SAYS
In any case, at the moment the most advanced project would be another and would concern the electrification of an Opel vehicle, code-named O3U: the details provided by Reuters are many and such as to lend credibility to the rumors and would see the Chinese providing technologies and components for electronics and the electric part, i.e., the hi-tech know-how so sought after by Western carmakers who are at a clear disadvantage compared to competitors from Beijing and surroundings, while Opel would be responsible for the exterior design.
Assembly should start in 2028, with the rather modest goal of producing 50,000 units per year. Stellantis’s intention not to overdo it is clear, considering the many unknowns surrounding the future of plug-in vehicles. The car will share the same platform underlying the Leapmotor B10, the compact SUV set to arrive in a few months precisely at Figueruelas, so it will not require changes to the Spanish production lines.
ANOTHER EUROPEAN PLANT AT RISK?
Unconfirmed rumors also speak of a possible collaboration between Stellantis and Leapmotor regarding the next generation of Opel Mokka, a model now at the end of its life cycle currently produced at the French Poissy plant which, by a curious twist of fate, seems twinned with the Italian Cassino plant as both production hubs share the same uncertainty about their industrial future.
So much so that several French outlets already imagine very different scenarios for the site: that area is coveted by the Qatari owners of Paris Saint-Germain who would like to build a new stadium there. It therefore raises the question whether, in light of what has been told and speculated so far, the future electric Mokkas might also end up at the plant on the outskirts of Zaragoza, always produced by the Chinese.
