China’s GAC and Stellantis JV to close plant

Dutch automaker Stellantis NV’s Chinese joint venture with GAC will shut one of its two Chinese factories by next March as the company restructures operations in the world’s largest auto market where it has had difficulties selling cars, reports Reuters. The joint venture, which has capacity to make 328,000 vehicles a year, sold only 12,288 in the first seven months this year, all Jeep-branded sport-utility vehicles.

It will transfer production from Guangzhou to Changsha to “increase (the) utilization rate of plants and lower cost,” GAC said in a statement. The Changsha factory has capacity to make 164,000 vehicles a year, still far more than the venture sells.

The joint venture was launched by GAC and Fiat Chrysler (FCA), which merged with PSA to become Stellantis.