[Markoff]

Wow, I don't follow car news recently, so just now discovered Peugeot, Citroen, Fiat and Opel have same owner now (Stellantis), still can't comprehened how could be such merger approved by regulators.

Also was aware that Nissan and Renault cooperate, but didn't know there is also Mitshubishi with them. Btw. Adobe Acrobat logo would like to have a word.

[PinguTS]

That's when GM had his crisis and sold of all its non-US brands Opel, Vauxhall and so to PSA. It was a big mess.

Then just recently FCA and PSA formed Stellantis.

PSA and Fiat worked together previously, as their van the Fiat Ducato is basically the same as the vans from PSA group and the same as the Iveco Daily. They closely worked also together in other areas.

The small cars by Fiat was also partly joined development with Opel in the mid 1990. That relationship worked loosely for years, even while Opel still was part of GM.

[jaclaz]

Also later, as an example I have a 2006 Opel (Vauxhall) Vectra C 1.9 TD, the engine (and well as the Saab 9-3 one) is a FIAT one, and they share quite a few "common" parts outside the engine with the Fiat Croma.

[consp]

While being not even the biggest in total number of sales (wikipedia says fifth). I still find it strange that it's a Dutch company (and Fiat Chrystler before it), since the Netherlands has no local-origin car manufacturer since DAF-Cars was sold to Volvo in the '70.

[franch]

The reason for being a Dutch company is purely for a taxation advantage, and it goes back to the fact that FIAT/FCA moved its headquarters to the Netherlands under Marchionne's leadership. Other italian companies (Mediaset owned by Berlusconi Family) did this too recently: ( https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2021/09/18/mediaset-la-sede... )

[wlecometo]

no it was not taxation but legal reasons. as it takes years in italy to get a decision from judges.

[LtWorf]

The Netherlands entire business is to be a tax haven inside the EU market.

Their hobby is telling other countries that they suck because their economy is bad (partly because of NL being a tax haven).

[wlecometo]

> The Netherlands entire business is to be a tax haven inside the EU market.

while taxation in NL is lower than other countries like italy or French, it is not a tax haven, which is a precise definition that involves also border line legal activities.

what you maybe mean is that NL was able to lower taxes on companies because they understand their values, while other nations decided to go for a "tax the sh*t out of everything" and now they are surprised that companies are closing or moving to other nations.

the actual reasons for FCA and Mediaset to move to NL was more about legal : on average in italy you get a decision in 5 years, in NL on average it takes 6 months.

[gpderetta]

I think Netherlands is just a convenient place for European multinationals to incorporate. ST Micro, another Italo-French company is incorporated there for example.

[sokoloff]

I always thought ST Micro was based in Geneva.

[gpderetta]

from Wikipedia:

    While STMicroelectronics corporate headquarters and the headquarters for EMEA region are based in the Canton of Geneva, the holding company, STMicroelectronics N.V. is incorporated in the Netherlands.

[sofixa]

It's registered in the Netherlands for tax and regulatory purposes.

[Vespasian]

I faintly recall that this was in part a response to VW growing too big in the years before. Before the merger Fiat, who was struggling at the time, tried to fusion with Renault but the French government blocked it.

Maybe someone has more information than me.

[touristtam]

Something that went amiss in the graph is the Samsung Car division that Renault took direct ownership a while ago.