It’s the official end of an ambitious project launched nearly fifteen years ago: the court in Changsha, Hunan province, has declared the Gac-Fiat Chrysler joint venture bankrupt, putting a definitive end to the industrial presence of Stellantis via this entity in China.
This joint venture, created in 2011 at the instigation of Sergio Marchionne, was to enable Fiat Chrysler to conquer the world’s largest automobile market alongside Chinese giant GAC Group. At the time, the ambitions were immense: 17 billion yuan in investment (around 2.3 billion euros), two plants in Guangzhou and Changsha, a capacity of 300,000 vehicles a year, and a range adapted to local tastes, including Jeep Renegade, Compass, Cherokee and the Fiat…