LEAPMOTOR's monthly sales exceed 70,000, aiming for globalization

Author | Chai Xuchen

Editor | Wang Xiaojun

After selling 70,000 units in a month, Leapmotor is about to realize its dream of a coupe.

On November 7th, Leapmotor's first personalized sedan, Lafa5, was unveiled. This is a new series completely independent of the Leapmotor A, B, C, and D product matrix. This time, it has proclaimed the slogan "To create a Dream Car for young people around the world," aiming to move from the mass market to the personalized track.

Leapmotor positions this car as a coupe, with a rather aggressive design. Previously, Leapmotor's Senior Vice President, Cao Li, pointed out that in order to benchmark against competitors in the European market, Lafa5 has made efforts in driving performance and handling. To pursue even more extreme performance, Lafa5 will also offer an Ultra version, which will compete with supercars through its overall aerodynamics and four-wheel drive dual-motor configuration.

This positioning has quickly led the outside world to associate it with the benchmark of the fuel vehicle era—the Volkswagen Golf.

In the era of fuel vehicles, the Golf was considered a car that one could buy with their eyes closed, having been the best-selling car in Europe for 14 consecutive years, with global cumulative sales exceeding 35 million units. Leapmotor's "yangmou" (open strategy) is gradually emerging; it aims to make Lafa5 a "god car" in the electric era, akin to the Golf.

Industry analysts believe that if Leapmotor can successfully shape Lafa5 into a true "electric small cannon," it could fill an important market gap in both the Chinese and global markets. Currently, in the Chinese market, pure electric hatchbacks either lean towards economical transportation or are high-priced luxury brands, while affordable models that combine driving pleasure and intelligent experience remain scarce.

It is worth noting that currently, joint venture brands hold a 47% share in the hatchback segment, and Leapmotor, eager to expand its market share, is attempting to tap into this structurally opportunistic segment that mainstream new energy brands have overlooked. Cao Li is quite confident about this, believing that Lafa5's monthly sales exceeding 10,000 units is not a problem.

However, in the minds of most consumers, similar personalized models are still considered niche. After Leapmotor has gone to great lengths to create a separate series for Lafa5 and allocate resources, will it successfully become a new hit in the family? One of Lafa5's key strategies is to capture the overseas market.

In Cao Li's view, Lafa5 is positioned as a global model, "it can actually be very mainstream, not a niche car." This positioning is crucial. Leapmotor's senior management predicts that in the future, Lafa5's overseas and domestic sales "may be similar to a half-and-half situation."

According to Leapmotor's plan, its overseas sales target for 2025 is 50,000 to 60,000 units, with plans to double that to 100,000 to 120,000 units in 2026, with Lafa5 expected to contribute 30% of that share, meaning overseas sales will exceed 30,000 units.

Looking back, from "half-price following" the Chinese mainstream market to attempting to define a "global mainstream" personalized market with Lafa5, Leapmotor's ambitions are already evident, hiding behind it is the grand vision of Leapmotor becoming a giant in the automotive industry The current Chinese new energy market has clearly differentiated and established patterns. While many new forces are still struggling on the breakeven line, Leapmotor has achieved an astonishing "acceleration." With its C series and B series models entering the mainstream market at "half the price of Li Auto," Leapmotor has achieved a dimensional reduction strike of "offering the experience of a B-class car at the price of an A-class car" through extreme cost control brought by fully self-developed technology.

In October, Leapmotor's sales reached 70,289 units, a month-on-month increase of about 5.45% and a year-on-year increase of 84.11%, making it the first new force car company to break the monthly sales of 70,000 units, and it has led the sales of new force automotive brands for eight consecutive months. From January to October, cumulative deliveries reached approximately 465,800 units, a year-on-year increase of 120.72%, with the annual target of 500,000 units within reach.

As Leapmotor has become an industry leader, it needs to have its unique approach. It has also realized that after meeting the mainstream, rational demand, it needs to step out of the current red ocean and broaden the overall user bandwidth, racing towards a million annual sales scale.

"Competition always exists; only through continuous product improvement and having advantages over competitors can one survive. Currently, both the C series and B series face immense competition."

Leapmotor Chairman Zhu Jiangming has emphasized that an annual sales volume of 4 million units is the "lifeline" for a global car company. He predicts that the critical point for the company to achieve monthly sales of 100,000 units may come next year. To achieve this goal, global models like Lafa5 that can tap into incremental markets are crucial.

Previously, Leapmotor has repeatedly emphasized one point: its foundational layout has been completed. Cao Li admitted that Leapmotor's ABCD platform planning is sufficient to support a scale of 2 to 3 million units, covering all mainstream models from small to full-size.

Cao Li stated, "After completing the foundational model layout represented by A, B, C, and D, and with Leapmotor's scale also stepping up, we believe it is both feasible and necessary to meet some personalized needs of users."

"Now, when we are making Lafa5, we have 1 million users and clearly know what users like, what are their essential needs, and what are supplementary and personalized needs." Cao Li expressed that Leapmotor hopes to showcase some of its characteristics that have not been seen before, in addition to its consistent strengths in technology and product capabilities.

Next, Lafa5 will be launched in the Chinese market at the end of November this year; next year, it plans to introduce the A series and D series to broaden more product lines and ensure more increments. In addition, Leapmotor also plans to launch 5-7 new cars in overseas markets next year to meet the diverse needs of consumers in different regions.

From being a "price butcher" with high cost performance to seeking technological and brand globalization, Leapmotor is attempting to complete a key brand leap through products like Lafa5