Leapmotor's monthly sales exceed 70,000, pushing for globalization.

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Author | Chai Xuchen

Editor | Wang Xiaojuan

After monthly sales of 70,000 units, Leapmotor is aiming to fulfill its own coupe dream.

On November 7, Leapmotor debuted its first personalized sedan, the Lafa5. This is a brand new lineup, completely independent from the Leapmotor A, B, C, D product matrix. This time, it has put forth the slogan "Building a Dream Car for Young People Worldwide," intending to shift from the mass market to a more niche, personalized track.

Leapmotor positions this vehicle as a coupe, with a rather radical design. Previously, Leapmotor Senior Vice President Cao Li pointed out that to rival competitors in the European market, the Lafa5 has invested heavily in driving performance and handling. Pursuing more extreme performance, the Lafa5 will also offer an Ultra version. The Lafa5 Ultra will aim to compete with supercars through aerodynamic engineering and configurations like all-wheel-drive dual motors.

This positioning has quickly brought associations outside the company to the benchmark of the fuel car era — the Volkswagen Golf.

In the age of fuel vehicles, the Golf was considered a car you couldn't go wrong with even if you bought it blind; it held the title of Europe's best-selling model for 14 consecutive years, with more than 35 million units sold globally. Leapmotor's "open conspiracy" is gradually emerging: it wants to turn the Lafa5 into the electric era's volume-best seller—the Golf—on a global scale.

Industry analysts believe that if Leapmotor succeeds in shaping the Lafa5 into a true "electric hot hatch," it could fill an important gap in both the Chinese and global markets. Currently, pure electric hatchbacks in China are either oriented toward economic commuting or are expensive luxury brands; models that offer both driving enjoyment and smart experiences at an affordable price are still rare.

It should be noted that in the current hatchback segment market, joint-venture brands still hold 47% of the share. Leapmotor, eager to expand its reach and imaginations for market share, is trying to tap into a sub-segment structurally overlooked by mainstream new energy brands. Cao Li is quite confident in this; he believes that monthly sales of over 10,000 for the Lafa5 shouldn't be a problem.

However, in the minds of most consumers, such personalized models remain niche. Can Leapmotor, after creating a separate lineup and focusing resources for the Lafa5, successfully turn it into the next explosive hit within its family? Lafa5’s hidden card is conquering overseas markets.

According to Cao Li, the Lafa5 is positioned as a global model: "It can actually be very mainstream; it’s not a niche car." This positioning is critical. Leapmotor senior management predicts that future sales of Lafa5 domestic and overseas "may be about fifty-fifty."

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

Looking back, from "half-price follow-up" in the Chinese mainstream market to trying to use Lafa5 to define a "global mainstream" personalized market, Leapmotor's ambition is clear; behind this is its blueprint to become a giant in the automotive circle.

The differentiation and pattern of China’s NEV (new energy vehicle) market are already clear. While many new forces still struggle at the profit-loss balance line, Leapmotor has achieved an astonishing "acceleration." With its C series and B series, which entered the mainstream market by offering an "ideal at half price," and relying on complete in-house R&D for ultimate cost control, Leapmotor was able to "offer a B-class experience at an A-class price," disrupting the industry.

In October, Leapmotor’s sales reached 70,289 units, a month-on-month growth of about 5.45% and a year-on-year growth of 84.11%, becoming the first new force automaker to break the 70,000-unit monthly sales mark and maintaining the new force car brand sales lead for eight consecutive months. From January to October, cumulative deliveries were around 465,800 units, an increase of 120.72% year-on-year, and it's close to completing the annual goal of 500,000 units.

Now that Leapmotor has become an industry leader, it needs its own unique strategy. It also realizes that after the mainstream and rational rigid demands have been met, it must step out of the current red ocean, expand the overall user base, and sprint toward an annual sales scale of one million units.

"Competition always exists. Only by constantly improving products and gaining more advantages than competitors can you survive. Currently, both the C series and the B series are facing huge competition."

Leapmotor Chairman Zhu Jiangming has emphasized that annual sales of 4 million units mark a "life or death line" for a global automaker. He forecasts that the key node of 100,000 monthly sales may arrive next year. To achieve this, globalized models like the Lafa5, which can unlock incremental market growth, are crucial.

Previously, Leapmotor repeatedly emphasized this view: its basic layout has been completed. Cao Li admitted that the ABCD platform planning is enough to support a scale of 2-3 million units, covering all mainstream models from small to full-size.

Cao Li said frankly, "After completing the core model layout represented by A, B, C, D, and as Leapmotor’s scale rises to a new level, we think we have the capacity and necessity to meet some personalized demands from users."

"Now when working on the Lafa5, we have a million users who have made it very clear what they like, what is rigid demand, and what is supplementary and personalized demand," Cao Li said. Leapmotor hopes that, in addition to its consistently strong technical and product capabilities, people will get to see some unique qualities of Leapmotor that were not seen before.

Next, the Lafa5 will be launched first in the Chinese market at the end of November this year; next year, plans are to launch the A and D series, further expanding the product lines and ensuring more growth. Furthermore, Leapmotor plans to launch 5-7 new models in overseas markets next year to meet the diverse needs of consumers in different regions.

From a "price butcher" with outstanding value to a global participant seeking technology and brand internationalization, Leapmotor is attempting to achieve a critical brand leap through products like Lafa5.

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