9 visits in 8 months: despite its 1 billion $ bankruptcy in China, Stellantis is courting its long-standing partner

Some bankruptcies close a door. And then there are those that force us to reopen an even older one. For Stellantis, the liquidation of GAC-FCA in China, with over $1 billion in debts, could have seemed like the end of the line. After years of strategic errors, plummeting sales and useless factories, many thought the group had lost China for good. Yet, less than a year later, the automaker is giving the opposite impression: not only is it not abandoning the country, but it is returning to its long-standing partner, Dongfeng, with an insistence that no longer resembles a mere courtesy call.

GAC-FCA's bankruptcy did not put an end to Chinese ambitions

When the Changsha court declared GAC-FCA bankrupt in the summer of 2025, the failure was spectacular. The joint venture, created in 2011 to give Fiat Chrysler a solid industrial base in China, left behind deserted factories, auctions without buyers and colossal liabilities. The wreck epitomized the difficulty for Western groups to keep pace with the meteoric transformation of the Chinese market, which has gone from traditional combustion-powered automobiles to a world dominated by electrics, software and rapid innovation.

But the lesson learned by Stellantis does not seem to be one of withdrawal. Since the arrival of Antonio Filosa at the head of the group, the discourse has changed: China is no longer presented as a lost ground, but as a space to be reconquered, provided we do it differently. No longer through a tired old structure like GAC-FCA, but through alliances considered more useful, more flexible and, above all, better connected to China's industrial reality.

Eight months, nine visits to Wuhan: an unmistakable signal

This is where the Chinese source is particularly interesting. According to a report by Jimu News, published in early March 2026, Stellantis executives visited Wuhan nine times in eight months. That figure alone says a lot. This is no longer a long-distance relationship, nor is it simply a partnership maintained for form's sake. Wuhan has once again become an almost obligatory point of passage for the Group, and Dongfeng is gradually becoming a key strategic partner once again.

On March 2 and 3, 2026, Robert Peugeot, Vice-Chairman of the Stellantis Board of Directors and representative of the Peugeot family, travelled to Wuhan with several senior executives. According to Jimu News, he met with Dongfeng, visited Shenlong Automobile and displayed a clear line: deepen Stellantis« presence in China, strengthen cooperation in electrified and intelligent vehicles, and move forward with a transformation logic summed up by a very telling formula: »made by Shenlong, sold around the world".

This trip is not an isolated one. The same Chinese source details a much broader sequence: Antonio Filosa visited Wuhan shortly after taking office, accompanied in particular by Alain Favey for Peugeot, Xavier Chardon for Citroën and Grégoire Olivier, then in the front line on China. Other visits followed in the summer, autumn and December, focusing on Peugeot, Citroën, Jeep, Maserati and discussions with Dongfeng. In other words, Stellantis is once again sending to China, and specifically to Wuhan, not an isolated emissary, but virtually its entire chain of command linked to brands and Asian strategy.

Dongfeng is no longer just a memory of the past

The heart of this story is, of course, Dongfeng. The alliance dates back to the 1990s with DPCA, the Dongfeng Peugeot-Citroën joint venture. In recent years, it had come to seem marginalized, weakened by the commercial collapse of Peugeot and Citroën in China and the more cautious strategy adopted under Carlos Tavares. But the partner never disappeared. And today, Stellantis seems to consider that this old alliance could still serve as a basis for a rebound.

Jimu News emphasizes a central point: in Stellantis' eyes, Dongfeng is not just a historic partner, but one that has become credible in the new automotive era. The Chinese group has stepped up the pace in electrics, on-board intelligence, digital technology and internationalization. The Chinese source points to Dongfeng's milestone of one million new-energy vehicles by 2025. This is obviously not a neutral statistic in Stellantis' thinking: if the group wants to reconnect with the China that's winning, it needs an ally that has itself changed technological scale.

What Stellantis is up to with Dongfeng

The information revealed by Bloomberg on April 15, 2026 gives an even more concrete dimension to this rapprochement. According to the source, Stellantis is discussing with Dongfeng a possible renewal of the partnership around joint production in Europe and China. The scheme envisaged would be far more ambitious than a simple local commercial relaunch. Dongfeng could gain access to under-utilized Stellantis plants in Europe, notably in Germany and Italy, while the Chinese group could produce models of certain Stellantis brands in China, for the local market but also potentially for export.

Again according to Bloomberg, Dongfeng representatives recently visited European sites, and discussions are reportedly going as far as considering, in time, an investment or stake in one or more industrial sites in Europe. Nothing is finalized at this stage, and the agency makes it clear that discussions may still fail. But the idea alone is significant: Stellantis is no longer simply “repairing” a political relationship with Dongfeng, it is now studying a cross-industrial model between the two continents.

Wuhan, industrial export base and laboratory for the new model

The story told by Jimu News completes this hypothesis. In Wuhan, Stellantis is no longer just talking about saving Shenlong on the Chinese market. It's also about turning this industrial base into an outward-looking tool. The phrase «in China, for the world», which has already appeared in recent speeches about Shenlong, is becoming an increasingly accepted strategic orientation. The idea is simple: use China's industrial competitiveness, local know-how in electrical engineering and on-board intelligence, and the manufacturing strength of the Wuhan sites to produce faster, better and at lower cost, before exporting to other regions.

The Chinese source also emphasizes the industrial quality of Shenlong's Wuhan plant. According to the story, for two years running, the plant has been named the best industrial plant in the Stellantis Group, with a quality level ranked number one among the manufacturer's 52 factories worldwide. For Stellantis, this is a crucial point: if the Group wants to make Shenlong a strategic hub once again, it must be able to rely on a credible foundation, not just on nostalgia for the PSA-Dongfeng years.

After Leapmotor, Stellantis is now playing on more than one Chinese stage.

What's most interesting is that this return to Dongfeng doesn't replace the Leapmotor gamble: it adds to it. Bloomberg points out that Stellantis is continuing to work with Leapmotor in Europe, and is even planning to make greater use of this partner's technology to strengthen mass-market brands such as Fiat and Opel. This confirms that the Group is not banking on a single Chinese card, but on several at once.

That's the ambiguity of the current strategy. Leapmotor provides Stellantis with a quick answer on electrics, costs and potentially emissions in Europe. Dongfeng, on the other hand, can offer something else: industrial depth, historical roots in China, production capacity and a possible bridge between Asia and Europe. Having missed out on the first Chinese revolution, Stellantis now seems intent on capitalizing on the second by multiplying its points of entry.

A shift imposed by Europe's technological weakness

This merger is no coincidence. Bloomberg explains that Stellantis is currently conducting a wide-ranging strategic review of its activities, with the help of advisors including McKinsey, against a backdrop of uneven demand and more intense competition, particularly from Volkswagen and BYD. One of the most sensitive issues is that of under-utilized European factories. In this context, welcoming an industrial partner or reorganizing production with a Chinese player can help reduce costs, improve utilization rates and avoid politically explosive closures.

In other words, if Stellantis returns to Dongfeng, it's not just to restore its image in China. It's also because Europe itself is becoming part of the problem. The historic Chinese partner is no longer seen simply as a gateway to the Chinese market, but as a possible part of the Group's global reorganization.

After the fiasco, the obstinacy

What makes this sequence interesting is its contrast. On the one hand, Stellantis remains the group that saw one of its Chinese joint ventures go under with liabilities of around $1 billion. On the other, the same group is making a series of visits to Wuhan, putting Dongfeng back at the center of the game and already exploring unprecedented forms of industrial cooperation between Europe and China.

It remains to be seen how far this return will go. Bloomberg emphasizes that no agreement has yet been reached, and that discussions may fail. But between the signals sent to Wuhan, the nine visits in eight months reported by Jimu News, the emphasis on the «Shenlong produces, the world buys» concept and the talk of opening European plants to Dongfeng, one thing is becoming hard to deny: despite its wreck with GAC-FCA, Stellantis is indeed persevering with its historic partner. And this time, it's no longer a question of diplomacy, but of a real strategic choice.