Nissan and Stellantis vie for Dongfeng partnership in Brazil

Both groups already have global ties with Dongfeng. What is now at stake are the factories and product-development operations that Nissan and Stellantis maintain in Brazil, which could provide another Chinese brand with a route into the local market.

In an interview with Valor in June, Nissan Americas CEO Christian Meunier said the Japanese automaker’s plans to expand activity at its plant in Resende, Rio de Janeiro, included negotiations over a partnership with Dongfeng.

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On Wednesday (8) night, during a meeting with journalists in Betim, Minas Gerais, Stellantis South America CEO Herlander Zola confirmed that his company was also seeking an agreement with the same Chinese automaker.

Meunier did not provide details on how Nissan’s proposed arrangement might work. Zola, however, said Stellantis wanted another partner with established expertise in electrification so the two companies could jointly develop new products for Brazil and, eventually, for export markets.

Zola did not say whether the decision rested entirely with Dongfeng. The Chinese company could choose to establish operations in Brazil without a local partner, but alliances with automakers already operating in the country offer a faster route to industrial production.

Second Chinese manufacturing partner

Should Stellantis prevail, Dongfeng would become its second Chinese partner in Brazilian manufacturing. The automaker already has an agreement to share factory capacity with Leapmotor.

Leapmotor’s industrial operations are scheduled to begin in 2027, initially through imports of semi-knocked-down, or SKD, vehicles for final assembly at Stellantis’s plant in Goiana, Pernambuco.

Still, Zola said that Stellantis’s main interest in such partnerships lies in jointly developing new generations of vehicles.

Dongfeng could therefore become the ninth Chinese automaker to launch an industrial project in Brazil.

Three Chinese companies have already entered partnerships. In addition to Leapmotor’s agreement with Stellantis, GAC has announced plans to begin production next year at a plant owned by Brazilian group HPE, which already manufactures Mitsubishi vehicles in Catalão, Goiás.

Before then, Geely vehicles are due to begin assembly this year at Renault’s plant in São José dos Pinhais, Paraná.

Renault Geely, the new company formed through the French-Chinese partnership, is an arrangement created specifically for Brazil.

Alongside such partnerships, two major Chinese automakers, BYD and GWM, have established their own plants in Brazil.

General Motors has also drawn on a global partnership to begin producing electric vehicles supplied in semi-knocked-down form by China’s SAIC at a multibrand factory in Ceará. MG, another Chinese brand, has announced plans to assemble vehicles locally at the same facility, known as Pace.

An older partnership links Brazilian group Caoa with Chery. Caoa recently began using the same Catalão plant where it produces Chery vehicles to manufacture models from Changan.

Omoda & Jaecoo has yet to determine where it will establish its Brazilian operations. Unconfirmed reports indicate that negotiations are at an advanced stage for the Chinese automaker to take over Jaguar Land Rover’s current plant in Itatiaia, Rio de Janeiro.

Electric-vehicle strategy

Rogelio Golfarb, a former Ford vice president who now works as an automotive-industry consultant, said Brazil should take advantage of Chinese interest and its vast reserves of minerals and rare earths to “create a more ambitious electromobility environment.”

Golfarb said the favorable backdrop should encourage Brazil to launch broader automotive programs capable of linking the industry and the advance of electrification to the potential of a country with some of the world’s largest mineral resources.