Just after China's automobile export volume reached an unprecedented 8.32 million units, the world's fourth largest car company Strantis Group suffered a historic collapse: in just half a year, it suffered a pre-emptive loss of 19 to 21 billion euros, equivalent to 150 to 170 billion yuan in RMB. This means that in the second half of 2025 alone, Strantis will lose at least 150 billion, and even as much as 170 billion.
When I heard this number, I wondered if my calculator was broken. After all, Strantis is a giant with annual sales of more than 5.4 million vehicles, and BYD's sales are 800,000 less than it. But reality is like a slap in the face - BYD is expected to have a net profit of 52 billion yuan in 2025, while Strantis has fallen into a huge loss like a sinkhole. The contrast between this is shocking.
From an operational perspective, Strantis almost made three fatal mistakes in a row.
Just after China's automobile export volume reached an unprecedented 8.32 million units, the world's fourth largest car company Strantis Group suffered a historic collapse: in just half a year, it suffered a pre-emptive loss of 19 to 21 billion euros, equivalent to 150 to 170 billion yuan in RMB. This means that in the second half of 2025 alone, Strantis will lose at least 150 billion, and even as much as 170 billion.
When I heard this number, I wondered if my calculator was broken. After all, Strantis is a giant with annual sales of more than 5.4 million vehicles, and BYD's sales are 800,000 less than it. But reality is like a slap in the face - BYD is expected to have a net profit of 52 billion yuan in 2025, while Strantis has fallen into a huge loss like a sinkhole. The contrast between this is shocking.
From an operational perspective, Strantis almost made three fatal mistakes in a row.
The first mistake is to overdraw the future for the sake of beautiful financial reports. In 2023, it created a false prosperity by laying off employees, closing R&D centers, and squeezing suppliers and dealers. At that time, it laid off thousands of employees at once, exacted 6.5 billion euros in liquidated damages from suppliers, and forced dealers to have 430,000 vehicles in stock. As a result, the net profit that year was as high as 18.6 billion euros, and CEO Tartas received a salary of 36.5 million euros, once becoming the highest-paid car company executive in the world. But this kind of fishing for the best soon showed its bottom line - net profit plummeted by 70% in 2024, leaving only 5.5 billion euros, and it directly turned into a huge loss in 2025.
The second mistake was the complete failure of the electrification transformation. The penetration rate of new energy vehicles in Strantis has not exceeded 20% (including hybrid models). Due to excessive losses, a large number of pure electric vehicle projects have been cut. In the United States, only one pure electric vehicle is barely selling, and it cannot be sold. In the European market, pure electric products have also failed one after another, and they have been forced to focus on hybrids, but their performance is still not as good as that of Chinese car companies. From this perspective, Stratis' electrification path is more like going in circles, and Chinese car companies have already been racing on this track.
The third mistake is that it is itself a "loser alliance". It was first formed by the merger of Chrysler of the United States and Fiat of Italy, which were on the verge of bankruptcy, but sales were still dismal. Later, it merged with France's PSA, adding Peugeot and Citroen into the group. But both Peugeot and Citroën are almost marginal players in China. By 2021, Stratis has become a super group composed of 14 brands including Chrysler, Fiat, Peugeot, Citroen, Dodge, Maserati, etc., with annual sales of 5.4 million vehicles, ranking fourth in the world. It seems huge, but when you take it apart, no brand has exceeded 2 million units. The best-selling Fiat has annual sales of 1.35 million units, followed by Peugeot with 1.08 million units. Other brands can only maintain a level of several hundred thousand units. Even the former luxury brand Maserati has collapsed in China, with the starting price reduced to 360,000, falling from the altar.
In order to reverse the decline, Stratis bought a 20% stake in Leapmotor for 1.5 billion euros and jointly established "Leapoo International". It plans to use Leapmo's electrification technology in Spanish factories from 2026 to accelerate the pace of transformation.
Why is the EU always wary of Chinese electric vehicles? There is only one fundamental reason - the technological landscape has been completely reversed. If free competition is allowed, Chinese electric vehicles will already be all over the streets of Europe, and Stratis will only suffer worse losses. Now, if it wants to survive, it has almost no choice but to introduce Chinese technology and establish joint venture factories.
I only have one emotion after reading this: In the wave of industrial change, no brand can rely on the glory of the past. Either leap forward or sink, there is no middle ground. What happened to Strantis is the best explanation.
