Priced under 90,000 yuan with lidar, are A0-class electric cars selling like hotcakes? A salesperson at a store said: 19 cars were ordered over the weekend.

"Leapmotor's goal (sales volume) for this year is to exceed 1 million vehicles, and we need a volume-selling car like the Leapmotor A10," a Leapmotor salesperson told a reporter from Time Weekly.

The above-mentioned salesperson revealed, "During the first weekend after its launch, our store received 19 orders for the Leapmotor A10, and another 2 orders were placed this morning."

Recently, the market for A0-class pure electric small cars has been heating up. This niche market not only features popular models such as the BYD Seagull, Dolphin, and the 2025 single-vehicle sales champion Geely Xingyuan, but also welcomes new players like the Leapmotor A10 and the new Chery QQ3.

As the products in this niche segment become more diverse, the already affordable A0-class pure electric small cars are once again in a fierce competition.

For example, the price range of the new Chery QQ3 after the limited-time direct discount is between 58,900 and 78,900 yuan. Among the four models of the Leapmotor A10, the lowest-priced model is sold at 65,800 yuan, and the top-of-the-line model is only sold at 86,800 yuan.

△Leapmotor A10 Source: Brand official

The price ranges of these two new cars are lower than those of the "veterans" Xingyuan and Seagull, whose price ranges are 68,800 - 98,800 yuan and 69,800 - 78,800 yuan respectively.

It is worth noting that while the prices are going down, the configurations of A0-class pure electric small cars are improving.

Functions such as lidar, independent suspension, large central control screens, sentry mode, and seat ventilation and heating, which were previously mostly seen in models priced over 150,000 yuan, are now being introduced to this niche market.

Low price and high configuration: the key to the hot sales of small cars?

While informing the reporter about the hot sales of the Leapmotor A10, the above-mentioned Leapmotor salesperson also showed the reporter the order placement times of the car owners in the system background.

Another salesperson at the Leapmotor store also revealed that just now, a leasing company directly placed 10 orders for the A10. "The store basically relies on this A10 to complete its sales tasks."

The new Chery QQ3 also has no shortage of orders.

△Chery QQ3 Photo taken by a reporter from Time Weekly

A salesperson at a Chery store told a reporter from Time Weekly that although this car uses the classic IP of Chery QQ, its design, craftsmanship, and configuration are all different from the previous Chery QQ, not just in terms of the power form.

Official Chery data shows that the order volume of the new Chery QQ3 reached 56,879 units two hours after its launch. The Geely Xingyuan, also an A0-class pure electric car, reached a cumulative sales volume of 600,000 units more than 530 days after its launch.

Cao Li, the senior vice president of Leapmotor, revealed that the background order data shows that 3,041 firm orders were received from 8 p.m. to 9:15 p.m. on the day the A10 was launched.

Zhu Jiangming, the founder of Leapmotor, even wrote directly on his WeChat Moments, "The weekend order volume exceeded expectations! The A10 is set to be a hit!" According to the data shared by Zhu Jiangming, the number of orders for the Leapmotor A10 exceeded 9,000 during its first weekend on the market.

Zhang Xiang, the secretary-general of the International Association of Intelligent Vehicle Technology, said in an interview with a reporter from Time Weekly that the recent surge in popularity of A0 small cars is mainly due to their low prices and the installation of relatively high-level configurations such as lidar and ultra-fast charging.

As Zhang Xiang mentioned, lidar has become one of the selling points of many A0-class small cars. The core label that Chery salespeople repeatedly emphasized when communicating with the reporter is that "although the car is small, its safety and driving experience are not compromised."

"The body material of this car is 80% steel structure, and its safety performance is far higher than what consumers think of as 'old people's scooters,'" the above-mentioned Chery salesperson emphasized.

A salesperson at a BYD Ocean store told a reporter from Time Weekly that the high - end version of the Seagull is equipped with BYD's Tian Shen Zhi Yan assisted driving system, which supports functions such as high - speed navigation, automatic parking, and sentry mode.

△BYD Seagull Photo taken by a reporter from Time Weekly

Meanwhile, the above - mentioned salesperson also mentioned that wireless charging, snow mode, and the free gift of a charging pile are all standard features.

The Leapmotor salesperson even said bluntly, "The Leapmotor A10 uses Leapmotor's most advanced technology in terms of intelligent driving and the overall vehicle architecture, which is no different from the upcoming D19. The currently sold C - series and B - series models need OTA upgrades to have the same level of intelligent driving technology."

Are pure electric small cars a new weapon for car companies to expand their market share?

Data from the Passenger Car Association shows that in February 2026, the wholesale sales volume of A0 - class pure electric models was 122,000 units, accounting for 29% of the pure - electric vehicle market, with a year - on - year increase of 3.9%.

In addition, A00 + A0 - class pure electric vehicles are also the core export models, accounting for 55% of pure - electric vehicle exports. The Passenger Car Association pointed out that "the growth of economical electric vehicles is sustainable, and only the popularization of economical electric vehicles can truly drive the growth of the automotive market."

"To put it simply, the current A0 pure electric small cars are no longer in the position and product form of the traditional entry - level small cars in the public's perception," Zhang Xiang added. "It is precisely such high - configuration performance that has accurately attracted a large number of young consumers."

The "2025 New Energy Vehicle Consumer Behavior Research" released by Jielanlu shows that the age of car buyers in 2025 continued to be younger, the car - buying structure was adjusted accordingly, and the proportion of first - time buyers increased to 40.4%, a 4.5 - percentage - point increase from the previous year.

In this regard, some industry insiders pointed out that both the continuous youthfulness of the consumer age and the increase in the proportion of first - time buyers are related to the expansion of the market share of the A00 - class and A0 - class markets.

"Because the purchase threshold of A0 - class or A00 - class pure electric small cars is low, the price - friendliness directly attracts young consumers, thus lowering the overall consumer age and increasing the proportion of first - time buyers," Zhang Xiang further explained. "As more and more young people and first - time buyers choose entry - level electric small cars, the market share of the A00 and A0 classes will naturally increase."

Dr. Mei Songlin, a senior analyst in the automotive industry, said bluntly that after the halving of the new energy vehicle purchase tax, some consumers' consumption attitudes have become more conservative, and they have therefore turned to A0 pure electric small cars with good configurations. Market demand determines the supply of car companies.

"In the medium term, there will still be a certain volume in the A0 pure electric small - car market."

Small cars do sell well, but the fact that "small cars are cheap" means it is not easy for car companies to make money in this niche segment.

However, Mei Songlin said that increasing sales on the basis of limited profits can improve the overall scale efficiency of the enterprise.

Zhang Xiang expressed a similar view. Zhang Xiang told a reporter from Time Weekly that small cars are cheap and have a low threshold. Their strategic significance is to help enterprises increase sales. Once the sales volume goes up and the market share is high, it will become a very useful tool for car - company marketing. When consumers buy cars, the sales scale of the car company is a major influencing factor.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Time Weekly" (ID: timeweekly). Author: Cao Yang. Republished by 36Kr with permission.