Dialogue with Li Boxiao of Lantu: Intelligent driving is the ticket to entry, but the chassis is the real core competence

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Author | Zhou Zhiyu

At the ongoing Greater Bay Area Auto Show in Shenzhen, Lantoo has brought its recently launched Taishan X8. Lantoo's booth is bustling with activity.

But looking around, Huawei occupies two of the twelve exhibition halls, and even neighboring booths are labeled as Huawei. Many Lantoo models also use the “Huawei all-in-one suite.” Winning the favor of users in today’s market is no easy feat.

Li Boxiao, Deputy General Manager of Lantoo Automobile Sales and Service Co., told Wallstreetcn in an interview on May 29, 2026, that the answer lies in the most basic mechanical qualities: whether the car drives stably, whether sitting in it causes dizziness. His metaphor: Huawei is the smart brain, the chassis is the agile body. The brain can be shared, the body cannot.

Just before the auto show, Stellantis announced a joint venture with Dongfeng to sell Lantoo in Europe. Lantoo needs to answer not only how to win domestically, but also what makes it stand out abroad.

Beyond the Configuration Sheet

Lantoo’s recent performance has been impressive. Dreamer took the overall MPV sales crown in April this year with 7,017 units, regardless of price segment or powertrain, surpassing Toyota Sienna and Buick GL8. Taishan X8 was launched on May 22, with 15,000 orders in 18 hours. In May, Lantoo’s total brand deliveries exceeded 13,000 units.

A Chinese new energy MPV beating global gasoline giants and winning the comprehensive sales crown was unimaginable three years ago. The standards by which users select cars are changing, from recognizing brands to recognizing products. Lantoo believes that what ultimately makes users choose their products is not screen size or computing power, but the chassis.

Li Boxiao said that even with exactly the same Huawei hardware and system, Lantoo still performs better in active safety features like AEB (Automatic Emergency Braking) and ELK (Emergency Lane Keeping), due to its chassis architecture. “Chassis architecture, that’s Lantoo’s forte.”

This judgment comes with a contrast. The whole industry is competing on intelligence and computing power, but Lantoo puts its anchor on the chassis, the most traditional and least sexy capability. From another angle, because everyone is focusing on intelligence, intelligence itself is becoming less and less a point of differentiation. Everyone uses similar chips, similar solutions, similar specs, and the configuration sheet users see at the showroom is similar too. At this time, what’s invisible on the configuration sheet becomes the true differentiator.

The chassis is a typical “invisible capability.” Intelligent driving solutions can be purchased, cockpit chips can be supplied, but chassis tuning cannot. Air suspension being adjustable and being premium are two different things; intelligent driving being able to operate and being enjoyable are two different things. Such differences have moved from the parameter level to the experience level.

Li Boxiao gave a specific example. “Why do many people report feeling carsick in other new energy MPVs, but not in Dreamer? Because our chassis is better.” New energy MPVs are heavy and have a high center of gravity, making carsickness a common problem. Solving it depends not on chip computing power, but on suspension tuning—something users can’t see but can feel once seated. For a customer spending 300,000–400,000 RMB to buy an MPV for family, whether the car causes dizziness may matter more than any parameter.

Taishan X8 follows the same logic. Li Boxiao believes competition among large five-seat SUVs will become increasingly fierce, and Taishan X8’s core advantage is addressing the genuine pain point of “big cars being hard to drive.” He said the talk about “third space” only matters if there’s a sufficiently large space first. A SUV over 5.2 meters, equipped with triple-chamber air suspension and dual-direction 16-degree rear-wheel steering, has a turning radius of 5.4 meters—just as nimble as a BMW MINI.

Li Boxiao summed it up as “an agile, smart big guy.” The space is large, yet flexible and smart, attracting many female customers who previously didn’t dare to drive big cars.

At the auto show, a Hong Kong celebrity serving as the Taishan X8 recommender said something similar: she got her driver’s license in Hong Kong but was afraid to drive because of narrow roads, yet Lantoo’s intelligent driving and chassis capabilities made her feel “ladies too can confidently drive good cars.” People who used to not dare drive big cars are starting to buy them now—a change driven by technology, not marketing.

Lantoo is among the few automakers with full value chain self-control capability in the industry, covering R&D, manufacturing, sales, and service, keeping all core steps in-house. Chassis tuning is the hardest part of this chain to outsource. That’s why Li Boxiao dares to say “Huawei is the strongest, bar none, but Huawei alone is far from enough.” Huawei solves the “smart” part, but “ease of driving” and “ride comfort” depend on the automaker itself.

However, in recent years Huawei has rapidly expanded in the automotive field, covering more stages from intelligent driving and cockpit to chassis. When Huawei does both the “brain” and “body,” whether Lantoo’s advantage can be maintained will be the most realistic test going forward.

Lantoo’s response is to thicken the product line. In 2026 they want to “shift from relying on a single blockbuster to building a product family,” with four new models internally dubbed “Three Kings and One Bomb,” all equipped with L3 intelligent driving hardware. On the MPV side, Li Boxiao revealed the development of a 500,000-RMB level new model (codename “Everest”), stacking atop the existing champion edition and 400,000-RMB model, covering the 300,000–700,000 RMB range.

Li Boxiao said there is still a gap between 500,000 and 600,000 RMB, and some users demand higher levels in features, technology, and luxury. He also emphasized that MPVs equipped with Huawei QianKun are not limited to Dreamer, but Dreamer still leads in active safety, chassis comfort, and brand style, which are difficult for competitors to copy in the short term.

Accelerating Overseas Expansion

Lantoo’s overseas story started in 2022, beginning with Northern Europe. Norway, Finland, Denmark, then Italy, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands—expanding country by country. By this year, Lantoo has entered more than 40 countries and regions globally, establishing over 240 overseas sales outlets, currently the only SOE-owned premium new energy brand deeply cultivating the European market.

In 2025, Lantoo sold only 3,210 units throughout Europe. Overseas orders in Q1 this year grew 205% year-over-year, leaving plenty of room for improvement.

The label “most BMW-like Chinese brand” was given to Lantoo by the European market, not Lantoo itself. Li Boxiao said, “BMW’s handling is widely praised, and Lantoo’s handling is seen as being on par with BMW by Europeans.” The secret behind good handling is still the chassis. European consumers are more sensitive to driving feel than those in China, so a good chassis is perceived even more strongly there.

Therefore, Lantoo doesn’t plan to wage a price war overseas. Management previously made it clear they won’t be the “global king of cut-throat competition,” and are specific about approach: “In Norway, let Norwegians sell the cars; in Italy, let Italians do the sales.” The Davos Forum has used Lantoo as official vehicles for two consecutive sessions; Boao Forum and major film festivals have chosen Dreamer. Lantoo doesn’t rely on low prices to boost sales, but instead stands firm on product and brand in the premium market.

In April this year, Lantoo announced three major initiatives at Auto China in Beijing: “deepening operations in Europe, expanding to the Middle East, entering right-hand-drive markets.” In the second half of the year, they’ll launch a right-hand-drive version of Dreamer and enter Hong Kong.

The bigger move is Stellantis. Just before the auto show, Stellantis and Dongfeng established a joint venture in Europe (Stellantis 51%, Dongfeng 49%), handling Lantoo’s sales and distribution in Europe, while evaluating whether to produce some models at Stellantis’ Rennes factory in France. This means Lantoo gains a ready-made channel network and localized production capacity in Europe.

From self-built outlets to leveraging Stellantis, Lantoo’s overseas path is being upgraded. Over the past four years they built up country by country on their own—slow but with strong control. Now the addition of Stellantis brings faster coverage with expanded channels and production. Management set itself the target of entering 60 countries, building 500 outlets, and reaching cumulative overseas sales of 500,000 units by 2030.

The financial side supports this approach. In 2025, Lantoo had a net profit of 1.02 billion RMB, with a gross margin of 20.9%. In March this year, it was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange without issuing new shares or raising capital; the share price rose more than 40% in one month, and Dongfeng increased its stake twice. Management’s stance is clear: self-sustaining growth is more important than raising capital, and a sufficient gross margin is needed for long-term development.

However, Lantoo’s 2025 sales goal was 200,000 units, but actual deliveries were 150,000 units. Dreamer alone accounted for more than half of annual sales. Whether Taishan X8 and Everest MPV can each stand on their own will determine if “product family” is a strategy or merely a slogan.

Li Boxiao also mentioned that Lantoo is currently the only SOE-owned brand insisting on direct sales as its main model, with all 509 domestic stores as direct outlets, and overseas relying on Stellantis and local partners.

Thirty-four years ago, Stellantis’ predecessor PSA brought car-making technology to Wuhan, forming a joint venture with Dongfeng called Shenlong Motors. Back then, “joint venture” meant the Chinese side provided the market and the foreign side provided technology. Thirty-four years later, the same partners signed a new memorandum—this time, the Chinese side provides the product, the European side provides the channel. Who is the teacher and who the student? There’s no fixed answer anymore.

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