By Nick Carey
MUNICH (Reuters) -Leapmotor’s global sales should hit 1 million units in 2026 and 4 million annually within a decade, with 60% of sales coming from outside China, CEO Zhu Jiangming told Reuters at the IAA Mobility car show in Munich on Monday.
“We are in the middle of our journey,” Zhu, who founded Leapmotor a decade ago, said in an interview. “Most of our sales growth will come from overseas because that’s where we see the biggest potential.”
Zhu said that Leapmotor will more than double its vehicle lineup to 15 models by 2027 and that will include launching a plug-in hybrid.
Leapmotor, a profitable upstart automaker in China’s crowded EV market, doubled its annual sales in 2024 to 293,724 vehicles.
Annual sales of 4 million vehicles would put Leapmotor in the world’s top 10 automakers and not far off the sales of Stellantis, which bought a 21% stake in the Chinese automaker in October 2023.
The two companies formed a joint venture that gives the Franco-Italian-American car group exclusive rights to export, sell and manufacture Leapmotor EVs outside Greater China.
Zhu said that Leapmotor is still looking at options for building a factory in Europe.
Stellantis has been rolling out Leapmotor sales across Europe, including in the United Kingdom, and will start sales in South Africa this month. Over the last 12 months, Leapmotor has launched sales in around 30 new markets in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Earlier on Monday Leapmotor launched an electric hatchback, the B05, at the car show, the fourth model it will sell outside China.
Leapmotor said earlier this year it would supply an EV platform to Chinese state-owned automaker FAW for its premium Hongqi brand.
Zhu said that platform will appear in a Hongqi EV that will go into production in the fourth quarter of 2026.
(Reporting By Nick Carey; Editing by Susan Fenton)
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