Leapmotor Erodes BYD EV Dominance with Global Alliances, In-House Tech
By Reuters | 28 Dec, 2025

China's Hangzhou-based Leapmotor builds alliances with Stellantis and FAW to grow annual output to 4 million EVs within a decade.

Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker Leapmotor expects to sell more than 4 million vehicles a year within the next decade, CEO Zhu Jiangming said on Monday.

Leapmotor aims to sell 1 million cars in 2026, supported by a global expansion strategy in partnership with Stellantis, Zhu said in Hangzhou, where the company is based. He also said the company would launch a premium vehicle lineup priced above 250,000 yuan ($34,300). 

The 10-year-old automaker has had success in China's brutal automotive sector, with rapid growth in sales volume and improvement in profitability throughout 2025. With its best-selling C10 electric SUV priced from 142,800 yuan, Leapmotor has also been eroding the market share of industry leader BYD in terms of EVs priced under $25,000.

Leapmotor's domestic sales almost doubled during the first 11 months of 2025, reaching 482,447 pure electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles, according to data from the China Passenger Car Association. In contrast, BYD's domestic sales declined 5.1% to 3.1 million units during the same period.

Zhu, an electronic engineer and co-founder of surveillance equipment maker Dahua Technology, believes in-house development and manufacturing of key technologies is critical to Leapmotor's cost competitiveness.

He said 65% of the parts by value in his cars were developed by Leapmotor, giving it a 10% cost advantage over its peers. 

Separately, Leapmotor on Monday said it would issue 74.8 million shares to state-owned automaker FAW at 50.03 yuan a share. The two firms will enter into a technology partnership to develop and make cars for FAW from 2026.

Neither FAW nor Stellantis, which invested in Leapmotor in 2023, intends to seek control of Leapmotor, said Chief Financial Officer Li Tengfei. Stellantis controls a joint venture that sells and produces cars for Leapmotor overseas. 

"Coupled with the controlling shareholding by the founding members, a stable equity triangle can better support Leapmotor's leading position in the future," Li said. 

The automaker will start production in Spain in 2026 with 40% of the parts by value to be procured locally as required by local authorities, said Shu Chuncheng, Leapmotor's vice president in charge of its supply chain. 

(Reporting by Zhang Yan and Brenda Goh; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Thomas Derpinghaus)