Leapmotor hat fünf Monate lang die Verkaufsliste an der Spitze geführt. Wie lange kann der "halb so teure Li Auto" durchhalten?

If we talk about the biggest dark horse in the new energy vehicle circle, it must be Leapmotor. It is the only car company whose founder has a manufacturing industry background and has managed to break free from the "bankruptcy" curse. This year, Leapmotor has topped the new energy vehicle sales rankings for five consecutive months. In the most remarkable July, it even delivered over 50,000 vehicles. As of August 21st, Leapmotor has cumulatively delivered 900,000 vehicles.

Zhu Jiangming, the founder and chairman of Leapmotor, has repeatedly stated that annual sales of one million vehicles are the survival basis for a car company, while 500,000 vehicles only allow a company to barely stay afloat. Although Leapmotor is the second company after Li Auto to achieve semi - annual profitability, its profit is only 33 million yuan. This all means that Leapmotor is still far from being able to relax.

2026 will be a big year for Leapmotor's product lineup. The most important models will be its high - end D series, which will determine the future trend of this car company.

Relying on the strategy of "encircling the cities from the countryside", Leapmotor has achieved unprecedented success. However, in the automotive market, just like Volkswagen Phaeton in the past and BYD more recently, when they try to upgrade their brand, they often face greater challenges than other brands. This is because potential customers of high - end brands are never price - sensitive, and past successful experiences may become a hindrance in the future. Will Leapmotor be an exception?

"Half - price Li Auto", Breaking Through the Siege

Leapmotor's rise from being an "also - ran" in the automotive circle to firmly holding the sales championship throne is due to the Leapmotor C16.

The C16 is the fourth model launched by Leapmotor. It is positioned as a six - seat mid - to - large SUV, meeting the essential needs of families, and offers two options: an extended - range version and a pure - electric version. Before the launch of the C16, the 6 - seat SUV market was dominated by high - price ranges above 250,000 yuan. However, the C16 is priced below 200,000 yuan, which has completely disrupted the market.

In April last year, Leapmotor proposed the concept of "a more ideal home for young people" and launched two models, the C10 and C11. Although their sales were good, they did not really make Leapmotor stand out. An industry insider said that the C16 is the product that truly made Leapmotor popular. It is also the model that comes closest to the concept of a "half - price Li Auto" and is most similar in form to Li Auto's L7/L8. However, its price is only half that of Li Auto's models, so it is called the "half - price Li Auto" by consumers.

Zhu Jiangming, the founder of Leapmotor, is not averse to this statement. Zhu Jiangming responded to the media, saying that Leapmotor doesn't mind this description. "Customers who are used to buying Chanel may also buy Uniqlo occasionally. After using a product like the C16 and finding it no different, they may become loyal Leapmotor fans."

A Zhejiang owner who bought a Leapmotor vehicle early on said that there were relatively few Leapmotor cars on the road last year, but now he sees more and more of them. A Beijing owner said that now he has to wait in line for maintenance at the 4S store. A salesperson at a Leapmotor dealership in Chengdu said that on weekends, the parking spaces next to the store are almost full, and there are waves of people coming for test drives.

Charting: Tech Planet, Data Source: Leapmotor Official.

This year, Leapmotor has ranked first in the sales of Chinese new - energy vehicle startups for five consecutive months, becoming the only new - energy vehicle startup brand since 2025 to have a monthly delivery volume exceeding 50,000 vehicles.

Currently, Leapmotor has 7 models on sale: T03, B10, C01, C10, C11, and C16, with a price range covering 100,000 - 200,000 yuan. The C series has long dominated the sales rankings. As of August 2025, the C10 has ranked first in the sales of mid - size SUVs among new - energy vehicle startups for three consecutive months, while the C16 has ranked first in the sales rankings of mid - to - large SUVs priced below 200,000 yuan for eight consecutive weeks.

In Zhu Jiangming's view, selling 500,000 vehicles allows a company to survive, selling one million vehicles gives it vitality and the advantages of scale, and to survive in the long run, it needs to sell three million vehicles. Behind the soaring sales, as Leapmotor's salespeople and dealers, they experience both pressure and joy.

Some salespeople can earn a monthly salary of up to 30,000 yuan. To stimulate the combat effectiveness of the sales team, Tech Planet learned that in some Leapmotor stores, each salesperson can complete 60 effective test drives per month. In the current industry situation, completing 30 effective test drives is already very difficult.

Cost - Cutting Maniac, a Mixed Blessing

Leapmotor has become the second company after Li Auto to achieve semi - annual profitability, which is due to Leapmotor's relentless pursuit of efficiency.

Unlike other car brands, Leapmotor does not have its own direct - sales stores in the core areas of cities. Tech Planet's inquiry found that there are four direct - sales stores/dealers of Leapmotor in the Beijing area, and they are all located outside the Fourth and Fifth Ring Roads. As its home base, some counties in Zhejiang have also opened experience centers.

A Leapmotor dealer told Tech Planet that, different from the direct - sales stores of other brands, which mostly serve as a form of publicity, Leapmotor requires each direct - sales store to be profitable. If the profit requirements cannot be met, adjustments will be made after a period of time.

Leapmotor's Q2 financial report released this year shows that as of June 30, 2025, Leapmotor's sales and service network covers 286 cities, with 88 new cities added. It has 806 sales stores and 461 service stores, and the efficiency of each store has increased by more than 50% year - on - year.

Leapmotor's cost - control ability is not only reflected in the store end but also in the product side.

A person familiar with Leapmotor said that there is a saying within the company: "Leapmotor is just a contract manufacturer for users." Therefore, the gross profit margin per vehicle is not particularly high. Instead, it makes a profit through cost control and the advantages of scale.

In the fourth quarter of 2024, Leapmotor achieved single - quarter profitability for the first time, with a gross profit margin of 13.3%, and its annual gross profit margin was 8.4%. In contrast, Li Auto, which achieved profitability earlier, had an annual gross profit margin of 20.5% in 2024, XPeng had 14.3%, and NIO, which had the largest losses, had a gross profit margin of 9.9%.

On the one hand, Leapmotor learns from BYD and adheres to self - research in multiple key technology fields such as electronic and electrical architecture, intelligent cockpit, intelligent driving, and electric drive. Data shows that the electric drive assembly, battery PACK, and intelligent cockpit are all self - developed and self - produced, reducing the R & D cost per vehicle by 40% compared with the outsourcing model. According to Leapmotor's official data, it has achieved self - research and self - production of core components accounting for 65% of the total vehicle cost, which even includes the audio system.

On the other hand, it has learned the core of Li Auto's "copy - paste" car - making strategy - extremely high technology reuse rate and parts commonality rate. Cao Li, the senior vice - president of Leapmotor, said last year that the parts reuse rate of different models in the same series of Leapmotor will reach 85%. Zhu Jiangming also revealed that the parts sharing rate between models in the B series is 88%.

Behind the soaring sales, consumers' doubts about the overall vehicle quality have never disappeared. On the Black Cat platform, there are 3,619 complaints about Leapmotor vehicles. This figure is only second to the 3,900 complaints about its role model, Li Auto, while NIO and XPeng have 712 and 2,485 complaints respectively.

"Large quantity at a reasonable price" is the evaluation of Leapmotor by many consumers. Taking the C16 as an example, its price is half that of the same - class Li Auto L8, but it is also equipped with a lidar, a Qualcomm 8295 chip, a large rear - seat screen, and the third - row space is large enough, even more spacious than that of the Li Auto L8. Although its intelligent driving configuration is not as good as that of the Li Auto L8 and only supports high - speed automatic lane - changing and parking assistance, considering the price, users are more tolerant.

This is extremely attractive to young families with limited financial resources. A dealer said that in his opinion, at this price point, as long as a comparison is made, other car companies are no match for Leapmotor. Many consumers said, "It doesn't mind my poverty, and I don't mind its flaws."

Challenging the High - End Market, Intelligent Driving is the Biggest Challenge

In Zhu Jiangming's plan, Leapmotor will cover the market from 60,000 to 300,000 yuan through four series: A, B, C, and D. He once said that the reason for first entering the market with the C series priced at 150,000 - 200,000 yuan is that this price segment is relatively easier to promote compared to the luxury car market. In fact, the 150,000 - 200,000 yuan price range is also the most competitive price segment, which represents the overall strength of a company to some extent.

Currently, among Leapmotor's models on sale, the C series is the most popular, accounting for more than 70% of the sales volume, and it once reached 77% last year.

However, no brand will stay in the relatively affordable price range forever. If a brand wants to increase its profit margin/brand value, moving upmarket is almost an inevitable path, and the D series will shoulder this important task. According to the plan, Leapmotor's flagship SUV and the first MPV in the D series are expected to be launched on the market next year.

Cao Li, the senior vice - president of Leapmotor, once said that the new D - series SUV is Leapmotor's first flagship product targeting the 300,000 - yuan price segment. It is positioned as a full - size SUV and will be equipped with the most advanced technology in Leapmotor and even the entire industry. It will not be the so - called "half - price Li Auto" as the outside world says.

In the high - end market, intelligent driving is a very important consideration for consumers, but currently, Leapmotor's intelligent driving ability is not very outstanding. For example, when XPeng and Wenjie have already achieved full - country coverage of the urban expressway navigation and elevated NAP (Navigation - Assisted Driving) functions, Leapmotor announced in the first quarter of this year that it will equip this function on three models: the C10, C11, and C16.

Zhu Jiangming once admitted that currently, Leapmotor lags behind its competitors in the field of intelligent driving, with a gap of about 6 - 12 months in engineering R & D time. Well - known automotive blogger "Sun Shaojun 09" revealed during a live broadcast that Leapmotor is in talks with Huawei about cooperation, but the details may not have been fully finalized, and the final news needs to wait for official confirmation. The industry generally believes that the focus of the cooperation between the two sides will be in the field of intelligent driving.

However, catching up in intelligent driving ability is not easy. BYD has invested 100 billion yuan and expanded its personnel scale by 10 times in two years to achieve remarkable results. However, Leapmotor does not have as much financial resources as BYD. Although it has become the second company after Li Auto to achieve semi - annual profitability, Leapmotor only has a net profit of 33 million yuan. In the first half of 2025, Leapmotor's free cash flow reached 860 million yuan. If it makes large - scale investments in intelligent driving, it will inevitably affect its profits.

In the past, although Leapmotor emphasized self - research, its R & D investment was not large. From 2019 - 2024, its cumulative R & D investment was 7.07 billion yuan. Of the 2.37 billion yuan invested in 2024, 72% of the funds were used for the compatibility transformation of the old platform, and only 28% was invested in the R & D of the new architecture.

In the whole of 2024, NIO's R & D investment was 13.037 billion yuan, Li Auto's was 11 billion yuan, and XPeng's was 6.5 billion yuan. Leapmotor's total R & D investment in five years is just a little more than XPeng's investment in one year.

More importantly, the high - end market requires not only the extreme cost - performance of "large quantity at a reasonable price" but also product tonality, design, etc. For Leapmotor, the path to the high - end market will probably not be smooth.

This article is from the WeChat public account "Tech Planet" (ID: tech618), author: Wang Lin, published by 36Kr with authorization.