The Stellantis deal with Leapmotor has been finalised and Malaysia was named for market introduction.
Stellantis has been in talks with Leapmotor for quite some time and in October of last year, they finally got the details of their partnership ironed out, taking a 20% stake in the Chinese startup. At a press conference today, Stellantis confirmed that they will start to execute global expansion plans of Leapmotor electric vehicles to 9 European markets, as well as parts of South America, Middle East & Africa as well as India & Asia Pacific. The final point is the most interesting to us.
DSF.my already had an insight into this back in March 2024, but now top Stellantis management has essentially confirmed that Leapmotor vehicles will be introduced to Malaysia by Q4 2024. That’s just a matter of months away, so yes, we can expect a new Chinese EV brand to come to Malaysia. Leapmotor was founded in 2015 and started selling cars in 2019.
They went from selling just 1000 cars in 2019 to selling more than 144,000 in 2023. The company’s key advantage is that it engineers and produces many of its EV parts in-house. With Stellantis’ vast manufacturing network, Leapmotor will have more options to export to protected markets.
Stellantis also benefits from Leapmotors’ impressive EV products.
Two vehicles were named for the export market – the Leapmotor C10 and the Leapmotor T03. It has been indicated that the Stellantis plant in Gurun, Kedah will be used to locally-assemble these electric vehicles but this has yet to be confirmed. Stellantis will be monitoring quality and cost of CBU vs CKD before finalizing their strategy. The deadline for CBU EV excise duty and import tax exemption is coming to a close soon, so we’ll get an answer before long.
Leapmotor says there are both left-hand drive and right-hand drive models available. Besides that, they shared a rough idea of future product expansion. According to Leapmotor, there are 3 price segments in China – vehicles around 100,000 yuan, 200,000 yuan and 300,000 yuan. Each of these three price segments will be occupied with at least 1 sedan, 1 crossover and 1 MPV product. The brand will be launching at least 1 car a year.
