by ZHOU Mo

Chinese driving-technology suppliers are finding a new route into overseas markets: foreign auto brands working through their Chinese joint-venture partners.

Shenlong Automobile Technology (Wuhan), a newly established company that brings together Dongfeng Motor, Stellantis and other investors, signed a global strategic cooperation agreement with Chinese driving-technology company Momenta on September 24. The two companies will jointly develop advanced driver-assistance systems for new Peugeot and Jeep production models, with plans to deploy them in China, Europe and other markets.

The partnership reflects a shift from the traditional joint-venture model, under which technology and vehicle platforms flowed largely from foreign carmakers into China. Shenlong Technology is instead seeking to use Chinese technology and engineering capabilities to develop vehicles for Stellantis brands and overseas markets.

"The overseas market is already waiting for us," Shenlong Technology general manager LYU Haitao told Jiemian News and other media.

Shenlong's "In China, for Global" strategy does not mean developing a vehicle for China and then finding ways to export it, Lyu said. The vehicles are intended from the outset to form part of Stellantis' global product planning.

For Momenta, that offers an overseas route beyond following Chinese automakers abroad or supplying foreign brands with localized technology in China. The company could instead use Stellantis' existing brands, vehicle programs and sales network to bring its driving technology to markets beyond China.

Momenta CEO CAO Xudong described the partnership as an example of the company's expansion "from China to the world," saying Shenlong and Stellantis were increasingly drawing on Chinese technology and supply chains.

The partnership comes as Stellantis resets its electric-vehicle strategy. The carmaker said in February it would recognize about €22.2 billion in charges related to a reset of its business in the second half of 2025, including €14.7 billion related to changes in product plans, largely reflecting reduced expectations for battery-electric vehicles.

For Momenta, the partnership also comes as its business is scaling rapidly in China while pricing pressure spreads through the automotive supply chain.

The company's cumulative installations surpassed 1 million vehicles in the first half of this year, while revenue rose 75.9 per cent to 1.60 billion yuan. But intensifying price competition among Chinese automakers is filtering down to suppliers. Momenta co-founder SUN Huan acknowledged at the company's first earnings briefing after its listing that its average revenue per vehicle could continue to change.

Shenlong offers Momenta both access to Stellantis' global markets and deeper involvement in vehicle development, at a time when some Chinese automakers are bringing more algorithms, AI models and engineering capabilities in-house.

Cao said Momenta's work with Shenlong involves extensive discussions over vehicle architecture. The companies first identify the target customer and what the brand wants a vehicle to represent, then define the overall product before determining what the driver-assistance system should contribute.

Shenlong, however, does not see outsourcing driving technology as surrendering control over product definition. Lyu said a carmaker's core capability lies in integrating different technologies into a complete vehicle rather than possessing the most advanced technology in every individual field.

Taking that model overseas brings another set of challenges.

Lyu said a global vehicle has to meet different regulatory, cost and consumer requirements across Europe, the Americas and Africa, while North America has a relatively distinct standards system. Greater product-development autonomy for Shenlong's Chinese team therefore also means taking on work that would previously have been handled within the global systems of its foreign shareholder.

Europe adds further complexity. Beyond vehicle regulations, Chinese technology companies also face local requirements and policies covering data, investment, employment and industrial development.

"This is political economy," Lyu said.

Those differences are already shaping the geographic limits of the partnership. Lyu said the vehicles developed under the program would "in principle" target global markets outside the United States, which remains a distinct market.

Stellantis said in May that it had reached an agreement with British driving-technology company Wayve and plans to begin integrating Wayve's Level 2++ technology into vehicles in North America in 2028. The Financial Times reported on September 22 that Mercedes-Benz, which has a close investment and business relationship with Momenta, had also signed a production agreement with Wayve.

Asked about the Mercedes-Wayve agreement, Cao said that he viewed it as giving Mercedes "another option" in North America.

Momenta has been preparing for overseas expansion since around 2021, according to Cao, establishing a European team in Germany and building capabilities covering overseas data operations, data centers and regulatory compliance. He expects urban navigation-on-autopilot systems to reach a significant inflection point in overseas markets around 2028 and said Momenta wants to be prepared at least six months before that happens.

The Shenlong partnership will test whether Momenta can translate the scale it has built in China into a global business while navigating different regulations, industrial policies and multinational carmakers' increasingly diverse supplier strategies.

For Chinese driving-technology suppliers, joint-venture carmakers are therefore becoming more than a source of domestic orders. They could also provide another route into the global automotive market — even if that route is considerably more complex than exporting technology developed for China.