Recently, a major piece of news broke in the global automotive circle: Nissan and Chery Automobile signed a memorandum of understanding to discuss having Nissan manufacture passenger cars for Chery at its Sunderland plant in the UK. This means that once lofty multinational giants are now voluntarily giving up their core production lines to "work" for Chinese brands.

Previously, Chinese car companies would do OEM for foreign brands, earning some hard-earned money; Now the tide has turned: Nissan leased its idle factory to Chery, which supplied its technology and products.

This marks that Chinese automakers have completely bid farewell to the era of simply "selling cars" when going global, and have officially entered the 2.0 stage of "exporting standards and integrating global production capacity."

| Nissan's "Cutting Arms to Survive" vs. Chery's "Capacity Hunger and Thirst"

This seemingly incredible cooperation is essentially a "mutual pursuit" where both sides meet their needs. For Nissan, this is an asset rescue.

The Sunderland plant was once Nissan's pride in Europe, but due to weak European demand and lagging domestic transformation, its operating rate will plummet to 45.5% by 2025, far below the break-even line of 75%. To cut losses, Nissan consolidated its in-house models into a second production line, freeing up the first line. By manufacturing for Chery, Nissan can not only earn B2B manufacturing service fees to dilute depreciation but also protect the jobs of 6,000 local workers, easing union pressure.

For Chery, this is a pressing issue. Chery's Omoda and Jaecoo are selling very well in the UK market, but relying solely on sea freight for export faces high logistics costs and tariff barriers.

If you build your own factory, it takes 3-5 years and faces extremely high compliance risks. By directly utilizing Nissan's off-the-shelf production lines, Chery not only saves huge capital expenditures but also directly integrates into the UK's mature supply chain system, achieving "low cost, fast implementation."

|From "selling cars" to "building factories": The wisdom of Chinese automakers' "brownfield integration."

日产与奇瑞的合作并非孤例。纵观欧洲，Stellantis、福特等传统车企正面临严重的产能过剩，而中国车企正拿着“解题钥匙”加速入场。

不同于早期日韩车企出海时偏爱“平地起高楼”的重资产建厂模式，新一代中国车企更倾向于“棕地整合”与轻资产合作。

无论是奇瑞入驻日产的西班牙和南非工厂，还是吉利与雷诺在巴西的股权合作，这种模式巧妙避开了欧洲复杂的土地环评和工会纠纷，将自身利益与当地就业深度绑定，成为了出海本土化最有效的商业武器。

| Value Chain Inversion: Chinese Automakers Transform into the "Global Foxconn"

The most profound impact of "reverse foundry" is the complete reversal of the global automotive manufacturing value chain.

In the past joint venture era, foreign investors controlled core technologies and brand premiums, while the Chinese side only earned a meager assembly fee. In Sunderland's scenario, Chery holds the right to define products, core electric drive technologies, and the intelligent cockpit ecosystem; Nissan has regressed to being an assembly service provider. This marks the shift of the core added value of the automotive industry from "chassis and internal combustion engine" to "three-electric system and intelligent domain control." Chinese automakers mastering core technologies are like Apple, turning global idle factories into their own "contract manufacturers."

Chinese automakers have entered the deep waters of "capacity integration" in globalization, and their overseas logic has upgraded from "product export" to "industry chain export." Facing trade barriers, revitalizing existing overseas capacity through asset-light models such as joint ventures, contract manufacturing, and leasing will become the mainstream strategy for Chinese automakers in the coming years.

European and American automakers that have fallen behind in the electrification transition are seeing their idle factories repriced. In the future, cooperation between multinational and Chinese automakers will present a new normal of "capital for resources, technology for markets." The integration of overseas production capacity by automakers will inevitably drive localized supply of upstream core components (such as batteries and intelligent driving hardware).

Kingtech Perspective | A leading vehicle manufacturer with global operational capabilities

Focus on leading automakers whose overseas sales continue to climb and have successfully established localized production capacity overseas through joint ventures, contract manufacturing, and other means (such as Chery, Geely, Leapmotor, etc.). They will be the first to benefit from the valuation premium brought by the shift from "export" to "multinational manufacturing."

As Chinese automakers "establish camps overseas," leading auto parts suppliers with global supporting capabilities and the ability to follow OEMs in building factories overseas (especially in areas such as power batteries, thermal management, and smart cockpits) will usher in a huge incremental market.