A Stellantis joint venture with Dongfeng plans to build two electrified Jeep models in China from 2027 for export markets that include Canada and Mexico but not the United States, while the automaker’s Brampton, Ontario, plant remains idle.
Lv Haitao, General Manager of Dongfeng Stellantis Automotive Technology, named Canada and Mexico as target markets for the vehicles, Automotive News Canada reported.
Asked why the US was not on the list, Lv cited “reasons we all know,” according to Automotive News Europe, an apparent reference to US tariffs and rules restricting Chinese connected-vehicle technology.
Stellantis has not confirmed a Canadian launch, and no model names, prices or volumes have been disclosed.
‘Premature,’ Stellantis Canada Says
It would be “premature” to describe the Wuhan-built models as planned for Canada, Stellantis Canada spokesperson LouAnn Gosselin said, according to Automotive News.
She also said possible Chinese imports were not a factor in the company’s decisions about Brampton.
The two Jeeps are expected to include a battery-electric and a plug-in hybrid model. They are due to debut in China in the second half of 2027 and would be sold abroad through Stellantis’ existing dealer networks, according to Automotive News Europe‘s report.
Any Canadian version would first need to be certified to Canadian Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.
Because the China-developed Jeeps share no platform with Stellantis vehicles built elsewhere, North American certification would be difficult, Sam Fiorani of AutoForecast Solutions said, according to the same report. The vehicles are unlikely to reach Canadian buyers next year, it added.
The May Agreement
Stellantis and Dongfeng announced the expanded partnership on May 15.
Under the plan, their Dongfeng Peugeot Citroën Automobile (DPCA) joint venture will initially build two new Peugeot new energy vehicles and two “off-road” Jeep new energy vehicles at its Wuhan plant, with production starting in 2027.
The Peugeot models are intended for China and for export. The Jeeps are intended “for global markets.”
The partners put the combined investment at more than 8 billion yuan ($1.2 billion), or about €1 billion, with Stellantis contributing about €130 million ($150 million).
The plan remains subject to regulatory approvals and the finalization of implementation agreements, the companies said.
In June, Fabio Catone, Head of Jeep in Europe, said Stellantis would also start selling a large China-made Jeep SUV in Europe by 2030, built with Dongfeng in Wuhan, as part of a plan to grow Jeep’s European lineup to six models from two.
A Dedicated Venture
The vehicles will be developed by Dongfeng Stellantis Automotive Technology (Wuhan), also known as Shenlong Technology, which opened on August 20 with registered capital of about 8.2 billion yuan ($1.2 billion) from six investors.
DPCA holds about 24.1% of the new company, with Dongfeng Motor and Stellantis at 13.5% each and three local state-backed investors holding the rest.
In September, the venture signed Chinese autonomous-driving firm Momenta to develop driver-assistance systems for the new Peugeot and Jeep models, which will ship in China, Europe and other markets. The scope runs up to Level 3 conditional automation, with tuning for off-road driving on the Jeeps.
Brampton in Limbo
The Jeep plan has landed in the middle of a dispute over Brampton Assembly, which ended production in 2023 to retool for the next-generation Jeep Compass.
Stellantis paused that work in February 2025 and later moved the Compass to the United States, to its plant in Belvidere, Illinois.
In August, Stellantis told Unifor it was “seriously considering the closure and sale” of the plant, which still employs about 2,200 hourly workers represented by the union.
It has since signed a memorandum of understanding with Canadian armored-vehicle maker Roshel, which has expressed interest in buying the site.
Unifor members at Stellantis voted 97.3% in favor of a strike mandate on October 17 and 18, the union said on October 19, with talks stalled over Brampton’s future.
Unifor President Lana Payne called the prospect of importing Chinese-built Jeeps “entirely unacceptable and out of touch,” in an email to Automotive News Canada.
Industry Minister Mélanie Joly has threatened legal action over federal funding terms if the plant closes.
Ottawa announced up to C$529 million ($380 million) in May 2022 toward Stellantis’ C$3.6 billion ($2.6 billion) plan to retool Brampton and Windsor for electrified vehicles.
It had paid out about C$222 million ($160 million) before freezing further payments when it launched a dispute-resolution process on November 3, 2025, according to a government briefing note.
Chinese production at Brampton had already been floated. In April, Bloomberg reported that Stellantis was considering bringing its Chinese partner Leapmotor to the plant.
Unifor confirmed the talks and Payne said the mostly China-made model was “not manufacturing,” while Stellantis said only that it was “actively evaluating future programs for Brampton.”
Canada’s Quota
Any China-built Jeep would enter Canada under the import quota agreed with Beijing in January, which replaced a 100% surtax on Chinese-made electric vehicles.
The quota allows 49,000 vehicles a year at the 6.1% most-favored-nation tariff, rising 6.5% a year to about 70,000 by 2030. From the second quota year, starting in March 2027, at least 10% must be vehicles with a free-on-board value of C$35,000 ($25,000) or less.
Importers used 15,603 of the 24,500 permits available in the first six-month window, which ended on August 31.
The second window, which runs to February 28, 2027, opened with 33,397 permits after the unused volume was rolled over.
Demand has been concentrated. Tesla stopped taking orders for its cheapest, Shanghai-built Model 3 versions in Canada this month, saying demand had used up its import quota.
Mexico is not an open door either. Since January 1, it has applied duties of up to 50% on finished passenger vehicles, including EVs, from countries without a free trade agreement, a group that includes China.
The US, by contrast, applies tariffs of more than 100% to Chinese-built EVs, and its connected-vehicle rules, finalized in January 2025, bar Chinese software from new vehicles starting with the 2027 model year and Chinese hardware from the 2030 model year.
A Wider Stellantis Pivot
Stellantis is leaning on Chinese partners in other markets too. In Brazil, its South America President said this month he was open to importing kits through Leapmotor or Dongfeng.
Stellantis invested €1.5 billion ($1.7 billion) in Leapmotor in 2023 and sells its cars outside China through the Stellantis-led Leapmotor International. The partners marked the start of B10 production at Stellantis’ Zaragoza plant in Spain last week.
Leapmotor’s B10 and C10 SUVs are due to be assembled from kits at Stellantis’s plant in Goiana, Brazil, from the first quarter of 2027.
Days after the Wuhan agreement, Stellantis and Dongfeng also signed a non-binding memorandum for a Stellantis-led European joint venture, 51% owned by Stellantis, to sell Dongfeng’s Voyah premium electric vehicles.
