World’s fourth largest carmaker Stellantis – owner of Vauxhall, Peugeot, Citroen, Fiat and lots of others – has signed a deal with another Chinese carmaker to make and sell its cars in Europe. 

Stellantis and Dongfeng have announced they are setting up a new joint company that will be based in Europe, with a view to selling Dongfeng’s Voyah brand in the region as well as building and selling other models. 

Production will take place at Stellantis’s factory in Rennes, in the northwest of France, where the Citroen C5 Aircross is currently built but the company has spare capacity to build more cars. 

Dongfeng and Stellantis have a relationship going back to 1992, when the companies formed a joint venture to build and sell Peugeot and Citroen models in China. 

Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa said: “With this new chapter in our collaboration, we will give our customers an even greater choice of competitive products and pricing, leveraging the best of Stellantis’ global footprint alongside Dongfeng’s access to China’s advanced new energy vehicles ecosystem.”

Stellantis is suffering a bit under European emissions rules that require manufacturers to sell an increasing proportion of zero emission vehicles. The company is losing lots of cash and Filosa has been lobbying the European Union to water down its emissions requirements, which the bloc has partially done by watering down the combustion engine ban for 2035. 

What about Leapmotor?

Stellantis has had an agreement with Chinese carmaker Leapmotor since it bought a 20% stake in the company in 2023 – a joint venture was set up to distribute Leapmotors through Stellantis networks internationally and the two companies are working on developing new cars together. 

There’s also a similar arrangement where Stellantis markets and distributes Leapmotor’s cars using its existing network. 

We reached out to Stellantis, where a spokesperson said that there was no overlap between the Dongfeng and Leapmotor agreements and that the two brands have ‘distinct and complementary objectives’, and that the agreements were consistent with Stellantis’s aim to broaden its offering in Europe. 

What Dongfeng/Voyah models could come to the UK?

Voyah appears to be marketed as a fancy brand in China, with some swish looking models that could fill a gap between Peugeot and Citroen’s fanciest models and the likes of Maserati. 

The Voyah Free is a sharp looking five-seat electric SUV (top) that’s already on sale in some European markets, while the Voyah Dreamer (above) is a larger MPV that could siphon off some of the lucrative private hire app market.

Otherwise your guess is as good as any of ours. Perhaps Dongfeng will take some requests – we quite like the look of the Dongfeng M500, which looks like a cross between a Humvee and a Transformer, but sadly does not come with an electric option.