► How Leapmotor fits into Stellantis
► Cutting carbon for the other brands…
► … and potential for R&D sharing later
In 2023, Stellantis bought a 21% stake in the Chinese electric car company, Leapmotor. When the deal was struck, its reported purposes were quite simple. The biggest aim was to increase Leapmotor’s sales outside its home market, using Stellantis’s enormous dealer network.
Stellantis achieved this by forming a new company called Leapmotor International. It owns 51% of that firm, thus giving it exclusive rights to manufacture and distribute Leapmotor cars outside of China. And it’s had a good start to the year.
At the time of writing, you could buy a Leapmotor from 44 Stellantis dealers across the UK – but the firm has an aggressive expansion plan. Damien Dally, Leapmotor International’s UK brand director told me that’ll increase to 60 locations by early July and 80 locations by the end of the year.
The reason why Stellantis is so keen to get Leapmotors into its showrooms is because of carbon credits. Damien explained: ‘Stellantis has got to hit these horrible things called ZEV targets. It needs to have a 28% BEV mix. Leapmotor will be an enabler within Stellantis to achieve that 28%, which means that Stellantis, effectively, can sell more ICE vehicles. So, actually, you know, it’s a good addition to the family at quite an interesting time.’
Stellantis is hoping EV agnostics with no brand loyalty will see Leapmotor’s advertising and be persuaded to make the switch because of the brand’s attractive starting prices and generous equipment levels. So, to capitalise on the opportunity, Stellantis is turbocharging Leapmotor’s UK roll out to make it as easy as possible for consumers to get their hands on the cars.
In essence, Leapmotor is allowing Stellantis to play for time until it’s completely rolled out its next generation STLA platforms, helping it dodge fines and continue to turn a profit on its petrol vehicles in the process. This has been made even easier now the UK government has relaxed its ZEV mandate targets.
What else does Stellantis have planned for Leapmotor?
I’ve sat opposite several Leapmotor executives now, from marketing to product development, and I’ve asked them all the same question. When will Stellantis start using Leapmotor platforms and powertrains to underpin its cars?
I can see this being particularly attractive for Stellantis’s core small car brands such as Citroen, Fiat and Peugeot. Historically, these brands have had skin in the cheap city car game – but they’ve had to step out of the ring due to issues with affordability. Put simply, they can’t turn a profit on a cheap A-segment car.
But Leapmotor could change that. The T03 is on sale now for £15,995. It’s the fourth-cheapest new car in the UK, sitting behind the Dacia Spring, Dacia Sandero and Dacia Sandero Stepway. If Stellantis was to take the T03’s platform and build a new generation of dirt-cheap city cars on it, they’d knock Dacia off its perch overnight.
And it seems to be something Leapmotor and Stellantis are considering, even if they’re not ready to confirm it yet. I quizzed Tianyue Zhong, Leapmotor’s Global Head of Product Planning, about whether Stellantis will use Leapmotor’s technology in its cars. He, rather indirectly, explained:
‘For me, we work for Leapmotor brand. So, all the models with the Leap badge – that’s our scope. So, I cannot really comment on this. But definitely, yes. I will say that. Why not? They already started something because Leapmotor is already working closely [with Stellantis].
‘One thing, our CEO of Leapmotor International, because of Leapmotor, he’s now also promoted as the COO of Stellantis China. So, that means he will integrate more resource with Leapmotor and Stellantis China, such as the R&D departments and other functions.’
Any other intel?
Whatever the future holds for Leapmotor, we can be certain it won’t be combustion cars. Leapmotor has already hedged its bets on a range-extended version of the C10 – and Zhong disclosed there are more range extenders and potentially a few PHEVs in the works – but that’s as far as it’ll go. Leapmotor won’t take the same approach as Stellantis by building petrol and electric versions of the same car on the same platform.
When quizzed on the topic, Zhong said: ‘Petrol no. Never. Because the reason is very easy. Once you have the range extender – or probably plug-in hybrid can be considered in the future – but once you have these hybrid cars, why would you go for petrol cars?
‘For a usual customer, like a normal customer, the EV experience is really much better than petrol cars. For not like a petrolhead or those car lovers – those who just want to drive from A to B – the EV experience is much better. And with so much advanced technology, and pricing that’s probably just comparable to petrol cars, why would you go to petrol cars?’
This simplicity, both in powertrain options and in specification, is core to Leapmotor’s identity. Damien said: ‘One thing we want to stick to is this one specification principle. We think we’re onto something with that. The position of making it really, really high spec. The position of having a sunroof as standard. It’s something we want to stick to.
‘The car industry has made a business out of this, hasn’t it? You see it on TV. XYZ brand – I’m not going to name any other brands – from £19,995. You walk into the showroom and go “hang on, I saw this on TV for £19,995, but that’s £28,000.” Oh yeah, but it’s got this, it’s got this, it’s got this. Whereas for us, it’s £15,995. Choose your colour. It’s got everything on it.
‘So, we’ll stick to this. It’s about value, guys. Value doesn’t mean cheap. It means I’m giving you a s**tload of content with really high perceived value. And this is important because I could give my 13-year-old son a nice Hewlett Packard laptop but, because it hasn’t got an illuminated fruit on the front, even though it’s cost me £500, it’s of no value to him.’
The next few years are certainly going to be very interesting – and I reckon the rest of the Stellantis brands have a reason to be worried. Roll on this time next year when we can get a proper picture of the sales reports.